Second Chances
by sweetpeachytrina
Summary: xmen/ smallville: An sequel to Caught in the Storm....When Clark was held prisoner in Russia, it wasn't Oliver Green that was his salvation....
1. Chapter 1

**Second Chances**

**Summary: xmen/ smallville: An sequel to Caught in the Storm....When Clark was held prisoner in Russia, it wasn't Oliver Green that was his salvation....**

**Author's Note: This obviously takes place around the first episode of season eight and it will contain A LOT of spoilers, so you have been warned....**

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**The sound of voices swarmed around in his head like an insistent buzzing of bees. Clark struggled to open his eyes and moaned as he was greeted with a splash of cold water to the face from a rusty pail bucket. Some of the water got caught in his throat un expectantly, and he sat up coughing violently.**

**"How are you feeling?" a cold Russian laced voice asked evenly.**

**"Never better," Clark muttered sarcastically while he struggled to his feet. **

**He winced as the sun in the sky glared unforgivingly in his eyes causing his head ache to worsen. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but it felt that he had been drowning in darkness forever.**

**"Ready to get back to work?"**

**Blood from the nasty cut that was slightly below his hairline, mingled with the water dripping in his eyes making it hard to focus as he stumbled a few feet forward in a daze. It felt like he had been held prisoner forever when in reality it had only been a few days. He had never felt so tired, beaten and destitute in his whole life. He knew that the time would come when he had to make an escape or he was sure that he would pithier be held captive forever or die. As he tried to regain his bearing, his thoughts slowly crept back to the incident that had led him to his current predicament.**

**It had all began when Lex had learned about his secret. His worse nightmare had came to past and after fighting so hard to prevent Lex from finding the way to control him, he had failed which is what had led to their show down in the Fortress of Solitude. The last thing he had remembered was Lex holding him in his arms with a look in his eyes that revealed to Clark that Lex was no longer the friend he had once known. He was a man completely driven by power and the desire to conquer. He had to get back to Smallville. He didn't know whether or not Lex had survived the collapsing of the fortress, and if he had, he was sure that his former best friend and now arch enemy was scheming of a way to exploit him and his powers.**

**Not thinking, he swiftly grabbed a piece of lumber wood sitting on a pile of abandoned crates and swung it violently as his nearest guard, who fell to the ground screaming in pain. Another guard lifted his rifle to strike Clark when Clark grabbed the weapon struggling to wrench it away from the other man. He had nearly succeeded when the touch of a cold metal barrel pressed inches against his temple cause him to halt his uprising abruptly. Any time before, he wouldn't have hesitated to break free at gun point, but without his super speed, he knew if he had tried such a thing it would ultimately lead to his death. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he let his hands drop to his side as a sign of surrender. Another thing he wasn't accustomed to.**

**"You are very determined aren't you?" the Russian in charged asked evenly.**

**Clark felt a wave of anger wash over him.**

**"I just want to go home," he said softly.**

**The man holding the gun to his head was not sympathetic if his next words were any indication.**

**"Ok, just tell us where to ship the body."**

**Clark closed his eyes. This was it. There was no more fight that he could put up. They were going to kill him and there was nothing that he could do to prevent that from happening. He was confused to as how things could end this way. He had thought he had a destiny to protect Earth and be hope to those who know longer possessed it. All that Jor-El had told him was not to be. **

**"Is this not a place of business or is this nothing more then an over glorified fight club?"**

**Clark eyes snapped open and after the gun had lowered from his skull he whirled around to see the stranger who had spoken. **

**His eyes was first drawn to a tall bulky man who stood menacingly in the middle of the work yard with an unreadable expression on his face. Beside him a woman just as tall stood wearing crisp white pants, a yellow silk camisole top and a matching yellow scarf covering her face.**

**"Who the hell are you?" his captor growled, annoyed at being interrupted.**

**"We mean no disrespect, friend. My name is Nikolaievitch and this is my employer Lady Ana. Ivan, your boss, told us that we should come here to find what we are seeking," the man said mysteriously.**

**The heavy accent carried in his voice showed that he was truly an Russian native.**

**His captor stared at them suspiciously.**

**"What is it that you are looking for?" he asked snapping his fingers, causing several of the guards to come to attention with their weapons ready.**

**To Clark's surprise, neither the woman nor the man looked frighted considering the present danger they were in.**

**"We were told that you had the finest caviar in Russia, I assure you, she will pay very handsomely for is a woman with a very expensive taste,"Nikolaievitch smiled. **

**His captor chuckled, relaxing somewhat. Apparently their story checked out with him.**

**"What woman isn't, eh?" he teased, and all the men shared a good laugh easing the tension.**

**The woman seemed not to be bothered by the comment as her eyes suddenly fell on Clark with mild interest. Clark stared back not knowing how to react to her presence. One minute he had been ready to embrace death and the next he had been saved by this woman's arrival which seemed random, or so he thought...**

**"Advert your eyes if you know what's best for you," her Russian companion growled taking a menacing step in Clark's direction.**

**The woman laid a hand on Nikolaievitch's forearm stopping him.**

**"Careful, lady. He's very volatile," the guy warned.**

**"He is a bit worse for the wear and seem to have been dealt a great deal of punishment. I do not fear him," she assured before moving closer to him.**

**"What are your intentions with him?" she asked, not breaking eye contact with Clark.**

**"A rebellious brat like that with a stubborn streak a mile long is no longer any use to us or are work. To tell you the truth the kid was about to take a permanent dirt nap before you arrived," his captor chuckled darkly.**

**The woman's eyes smiled.**

**"It would be such a shame to kill such a creature filled with so much potential. There is fire in his eyes. He would be perfect for my line of work," she mused.**

**"Which would be?" Clark's captor asked with great interest.**

**"That is not of any importance. What is important is that I see a warrior which is better suited for living life taking my orders and not death. I want him," she said suddenly.**

**"Lady, he is not worth your trouble. Look at him. He is nothing more then a beaten man," her companion tried.**

**"Let me decide that for myself. A beaten man would not have such a fierce look in his eyes. If he is as you say then you will dispose of him and that will be the end of it," she said curtly.**

**Clark inhaled deeply. The hope of being rescued and set free was quickly dwindling. He was just being past from one slave camp to the next.**

**"I had plans on killing him myself," his captor grumbled.**

**The woman narrowed her eyes at him agitated.**

**"I will double my pavement for your caviar if you would be so gracious as to include this man in the deal," she paused before her voice soften noticeably,"If you do me this favor, I assure you that you and I will have many more fruitful transactions to look forward to in the future." **

**Clark held his breath bated as he waited for his captors response. While he was confused as to why the woman wanted him badly, he wasn't complaining. Moments ago he had been about to die and now there was a small window of hope that he might actually get out of the hairy situation alive. Despite the woman's ulterior and personal plans for his "service" he felt a bit more confident that he had a better chance of escaping her custody, then he had escaping the hell hole he was in at the moment. **

**But he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her from somewhere....from a time long ago....Her voice seemed to remind him of a distant dream, and her eyes...he was certain he had stared into them before.**

**While the man was obviously reluctant to let his prisoner walk away alive, money and business was far more important then a personal grudge so he nodded his head, giving them his permission.**

**The woman's 'associate' walked over and helped him up. Clark tensed but one stern look from the man made him stop all thoughts of resisting. He was huge and Clark wasn't sure if he couldn't mentally or physically take another beating.**

**"It was a pleasure doing business with you. You have been most gracious," she said appreciatively.**

**She turned and led the way to the black luxury towns car waiting near the gate of the fenced in camp, with the driver standing outside the door. The driver had chestnut brown hair tucked beneath a cap and he was wearing ruby quartz shades.**

**"Are we done here, **_**Lady**_**?" he asked smirking at the woman as if he was sharing some private joke.**

**She nodded, as he opened the door for her.**

**"Yes, Scott. I believe that we have got what we have came here for," she assured before climbing into the car.**

**Clark hesitated before climbing into the car after the woman warily. Nikolaievitch climbed in the passenger seat and the engine to the vehicle suddenly roared to life.**

**"Let us return back to the jet, Piotr. We do not want those men changing their mind and if you can, may you switch on the heater? We do not want our friend back here to catch a cold seeing how he is not exactly 'himself' to prevent such a thing from happening," she said mysteriously.**

**She reached into her pocket and pulled out a delicate pink handkerchief and began to gently wipe away the blood and water staining his face. Her words caused suspicion to creep up his spine. His gut instincts were right. From her statement he knew that she knew more about him that she was letting on and now the only thing to determine was whether she was friend or foe.**

**"Not that I'm not grateful for you saving my life back there, but," he started**

**"I was just returning a favor...Kal-El." Her words held no contempt, and dripped of kindness, but Clark's fear did not subside. Instead it was mounting steadily.**

**None of this was making sense.**

_**"What favor?" **_**he wondered apprehensively.**

**The woman obviously knew his true identity. Suddenly he got a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. Could it be possible that Lex had survived the cave in of the fortress and sent these people to come get him? He knew it was best to not let his fear get the best of him. If he was going to escape he would have to do it with a calm state of mind. **

**"I believe you have mistaken me for someone else. My name isn't Kal-El and I thought you said your friend's name was Nikolaievitch," he said pulling away from her touch. **

**To his surprise the woman laughed and the man flashed him a grin through the rearview mirror.**

**"Ja, Nikolaievitch is my middle name. Piotr Rasputin is what I go by," he said cheerfully.**

**Clark turned to the woman.**

**"Ok and who are you?" he demanded.**

**The woman chuckled merrily and she stared him amused.**

**"Do not tell you do not remember me, Clark Kent," she murmured.**

**Clark reached over slowly taking caution that she wouldn't harm him if he went any further. Almost as if she had read his thoughts, she nodded giving him permission. As he leaned in closer, he could smell the scent of sandalwood mixed with jasmine radiating off of her. The scent caused him to hesitate. He knew that scent. It was so familiar and it frustrated him that he didn't recognize it. Not wanting to wait any longer he caught the hem of the scarf between two of his fingers gently and pulled it away from her face revealing her identity.**

**"It has been a long time old friend," she smiled warmly.**

**Clark's head was nearly spinning from the shocking revelation of his savior. Memories began to swirl around his head. Memories of a strange, memory deprived woman with white hair, and blue eyes that he had pried from Lex clutches. A woman who had taught him that he wasn't solely responsible for every genetic mutated person on the planet. A woman who had nearly crippled him with her beauty and strength. A woman whom he had found it hard to watch walk away, yet here she had returned to him once more.**

**"Ororo...."**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Somewhere in the East coast several thousand feet in the air...**

"I don't care, Bart. Dinah is missing along with A.C. It's no longer safe for you or stone to continue the search for Clark so lay low at the hideaway and await further instructions," Oliver barked into his head set.

He frowned as the speedy youngster mumbled some off colored choice words on the other end of the receiver before hanging up. He regretted losing his temper with Bart, but he was cranky and exhausted. Sighing frustrated, he tossed his communicator across the jet before flopping down in his cushion chair. He had spent the past week non stop searching for his Krytonian friend and so far he had come up empty handed. What was worse is that he was no closer to finding out where Chloe Sullivan disappeared, nor where A.C. and Dinah had disappeared to. He felt like a failure. Every lead that he received, was a dead end and was starting to get discouraged. When he had first learned about the collapse of the fortress, his first thought had been that Clark had been in trouble and he rushed with his team of the Justice League to his aide. However, when they arrived to the fallen ice fortress they had stumbled upon a group of Lex's shady cronies shifting through the wreckage and that's when Oliver knew Clark was definitely in grave danger. If Lex had discovered Clark's secret, the ramifications of that would be devastating. Oliver had no doubt that Lex would exploit Clark in his pursuit for power.

His thoughts were interrupted when his communicator, lying discarded on the floor, start buzzing insistently. Moving swiftly he grabbed it an put it back in his ear.

"Go for Green Arrow," he said wearily.

There was a bit of static before a familiar voice came through.

"Dude, you are _never_ going to believe what we discovered," Bart chattered excitedly.

Oliver rolled his eyes annoyed.

"Bart, I thought I told you to lay low. It's way too dangerous to be snooping, especially if Lex's thugs are on to us," he said sternly.

A different voice came on the line.

"Yeah, right, Green Arrow. Like we were going to let you have all the fun." It was the deep baritone voice of Stone.

Oliver smirked. He should have known better then to think Stone and Bart would take orders when he was thousands of miles away. He knew both were motivated to find their fellow comrades Dinah and A.C., but Bart was also motivated to find Chloe. Ever since he had met the vivacious blonde a few years back, he had been taken with her. The only good part about their rebellion, was that Oliver trusted Stone more then he trusted Bart. Bart tended to be a bit of a loose canyon and impulsive, while Stone was level headed and responsible. That and the fact Stone was pretty much the only person who could actually reason with Bart.

"There is something you are going to want to hear, Queen. We heard through our underground contacts in Russia that someone fitting Clark's description was being held captive at a war camp," the black bionic man started.

"Was?" Oliver echoed gravely.

His hope that his team mates had found Clark had quickly been dashed when Stone had spoken past tense about his findings. However Stone's next words bought hope back to Oliver.

"Yeah, a woman and a man took him. One of our contacts managed to get a hold to the security tapes from the camp and while the woman couldn't be identified, we were able to put a name to the face of her companion. We ran a scan of his face through Interpol networks and came up with this. The man is known as Piotr Rasputin. A short history is that he moved from Russia to America and took up residence up at a place known as Xavier's Institute For Higher Learning located in the upper Wenchester, New York area," he informed.

Oliver scoffed.

"Are you meaning to tell me that Clark was kidnaped from a bunch of Russian weapon arms dealers by a couple of _school teachers_?" Oliver asked in disbelief.

Stone laughed.

"Looks that way, bro. I did some research into this school and while it came across as being just a typical private school for different age groups, thier has been strange things surrounding the estate. More then once a group known as Friends of Humanity has petition the government to disband the school citing 'it was a breeding ground for mutant freaks'," he said.

Oliver was highly intrigued. If Stone's information was accurate that meant who ever might have took Clark from the war camp had some kind of abilities which was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. Usually where there was a breeding ground for "mutated freaks" a certain billionaire was never too far behind.

"Stone, check and see if this institution has any financial or other ties with Luthorcorp," he requested.

Oliver's ears could pick up the sound of a key board being used in the back ground as Stone complied with his command. A minute later he got his answer.

"I just pulled up a bunch of different tax forms and property leases and there is no sign of Lex or Lionel ever having anything to do with this place. My gut tells me that this school is legit. Do you want Bart to meet you there as back up?" Stone asked.

Oliver sighed. He knew the wise thing was to wait for Stone and Bart so that he could have his back covered, but there was no time, plus there were other things that needed to be taken care of by his teammates.

"No, I can handle this myself. You and Bart continue to search for Chloe. Chances are if Lex had anything to do with her capture, A.C. and Dinah aren't going to be too far behind," he said.

"I copy that. I'll keep you informed of our findings and you watch your back Green Arrow," Stone said seriously.

Oliver smirked.

"Don't tell me that your actually worried about me," he teased.

Stone laughed.

"I'm not. It's just that Bart and I will be hard pressed to find anyone willing to wear green tights to replace you if something should happen," he taunted.

Oliver chuckled.

"Then I guess I better watch my six. Keep an eye on Bart and stay safe. Green Arrow, over and out," he said before cutting the transmission off.

Leaning over, he pressed a button paging the pilot who was flying his jet.

"Captain?"

"Yes, Mr. Queen?"

"Change the coordinates. We are heading to Wenchester New York."

**An: A short chapter, I know, but the future ones will be a lot longer. I am passionate about this story so I have written quite a bit over the past few days and as long as you review i will post. Happy Holidays!**


	3. Chapter 3

**An: One of the reviewers comments pointed out a good point on how things ended in the previous story with the Storm/Clark/Remy love triangle...so I decided to reveal the conversation between storm and Clark that we didn't see to help the story along. Also if you noticed, "Caught in the storm" was written somewhat poorly so just bear with me as I iron out the kinks lol..enjoy**

***Five Years Ago**...*

_Ororo stood under the cherry blossom tree on a hill outside of the mansion with her arms wrapped around her small frame as she stared out at the horizon. The afternoon was fading away into a beautiful warm evening. In the distance she could spot the half crescent imprint of the moon in the pinkish orange sky with a handful of stars. Not too far away, she could hear Scott laughing as he and Emma strolled around the estate hand in hand enjoying the evening as well. His laughter was something rare and it made the evening even more perfect. Smiling she sat beneath the tree and closed her eyes meditating. The tree had been a birthday present from Logan years ago and had been her place of refuge when she need to be alone with her thoughts._

_It had been nearly a week since she had almost destroyed the town of Smallville and now here she was reunited with her family whom had all gone out of their way to show how happy they were to have her back. Scott had graciously offered to cover her teaching responsibilities until she was properly settled in and Kitty and Jubilee both took turns in attending to her greenhouse which was Ororo's pride and joy. It was even rumored that Logan was discreetly showing his relief of her safe return by warning the students to stay out of her hair under the threat of intense training on the kids days off._

_The latter made a soft giggle escape her lips. If the rumor was true it would explain why Jubilee and Warren both had been uncharacteristically distant with her. Leaning her head against the tree, she opened her eyes and looked up at the sky dreamily. It felt nice to smile again. Especially after the past few weeks had been filled with danger, hopelessness, fear and...Clark._

_The thought of the sweet farm boy made her smile deepen. If it hadn't been for him she wasn't so sure that she would be alive. She owed him so much. He had protected her, gave her a home when she felt abandoned, and was a good friend and confidant. Suddenly her smile disappeared. As much as she tried not to think about it, she knew she had a difficult task to carry out. A part of her wanted to return to Smallville to help Clark carry out his destiny and perhaps explore her feelings for him, but another part of her knew her duty and heart was at the school with the students and the xmen and Remy._

_"Jubilee told me I could find you out here. I hope I'm not intruding."_

_She turned around and found Clark standing a few feet away with a boyish smile on his face. He was wearing a pair of simple blue jeans, a blue shirt and a red jacket, but he looked handsome none the less. She had asked him to give her a week to think before she could give him an answer about the unspoken question that had lingered between them when she had last seen him in Kansas._

_"Join me," she murmured._

_Seconds later he was sitting beside her beneath the tree. Nature was the only sound made between them. She inhaled deeply, silently praying to her goddess to give her strength and courage to tell Clark her decision._

_"This is my home. Everything and everyone I love is here," she paused sadly, "I could not possibly leave them. I belong here."_

_Clark nodded. There had been the hope that Ororo would return to Smallville with him after confronting her teammates, but he realize that wasn't meant to be. It wasn't as if he could blame her though. The school was the only home she had ever known, and the residents, her only family. _

_"My father once told me that we all have our own paths to follow and I understand that your destiny lies here. To be honest I think it's great what you are doing. Most of the meteor infected people I encounter use their abilities in a negative way, but it's nice to know there is a place this, and people like you who dedicate their lives to change that. You are needed here."_

_He grinned reaching over and gently untangling a flower that had fallen into her hair out of the cherry tree._

_She was sitting there in a simple white tank top and shorts, but he couldn't recall a time where she had looked more beautiful. The long white hair danced on the breeze like run away ribbons, and the sun light reflected in her eyes making her blue eyes seem an ever deeper and stunning blue. Letting her go was going to be hard, but then again it was the story of his life. He was always having to let go of those he cared deeply about. His father, Alicia, Lana..._

_He swallowed back his hurt and forced a smile. He had to be happy and support her decision despite his reluctance. He cared about her too much to protest and all that really mattered in the long run was her happiness. He refused to stand in the way of that. Silently, he rose to his feet and took her delicate hand in his and helped her up._

_"Ororo...you are a special person, and you will always be to me. I know you have to stay here and I have my destiny to carry out, but maybe one day we will see each other again," he murmured starring down into her eyes._

_Ororo smiled through her tears as she reached up and touched his cheek tenderly. She hadn't imagine saying goodbye to him would be so hard._

_"I hope so my friend," she said softly, and she genuinely meant it._

_He smiled and leaned in and hugged her warmly. She took comfort in his embrace. His arms were the only place she had felt safe in the past few weeks and now that was about to change and it made her heart hurt slightly._ _Pulling back, she gently leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on his cheek. She smiled as she watched him blush deeply. His deep beautiful blue eyes bored into hers heavily that made her breathless. _

_"Remy is a great guy from what I seen. He cares about you very much. He showed as much when he was willing to risk his life to save you. I think...I think that the two of you will be very happy together," he said graciously, capturing her attention once more._

_His statement surprised her._

_"How did you," she started._

_He smiled._

_"Remy seems like a really smart guy and it just doesn't seem like he would let a wonderful woman like you who loves him slip through his fingers."_

_Ororo bit her bottom lip softly. There was no need to further complicate things with anymore conversation. Saying anything more would make her resolve harder, so she remained quiet. She made her choice, and deep down she knew it was the right one, but it didn't change the pain she was feeling at the moment. She wished that things were ending any other way but the way the way they were ending now. She cared very deeply for Clark and never meant to hurt him._

_He noticed her distraught expression and flashed her comforting smile._

_"Hey, don't be sad. No matter what happens, we will always be friends, and I will always be there for if you need me, day or night, ok?" he assured._

_She nodded._

_"Goodbye Ororo."_

_After flashing her one last sad smile, in a blink of an eye, he was gone. Ororo was left beneath the cherry tree clutching the pink delicate flower he had freed from her hair. A tear slid down her cheek. She felt a loss of something that was too great and deep to explain. She was in love with Remy. She wanted to be with him. So why was it that she felt her heart break slightly in her chest?_

_"Goodbye Kal-El..."_

Present day...

Ororo slowly woke from her dream to the sounds of soft classical music pouring from a radio, the smell of strong brewed coffee, and the familiar sounds of soft humming coming from an old friend. Across the room, darkness peeked through the blinds indicating night time had arrived. Sitting up, she wiped her eyes and took a moment to look around as her surroundings. She was in the medical lab of the school, where she had been sleeping for the past two days watching over Clark who was sleeping soundly in the bed in front of her. Across the room, Hank McCoy sat behind a computer working diligently, running blood work and other samples he had gathered from the slumbering farm boy.

After they had led the native Kryptonian to safety on the jet in Russia, Clark had collapsed in exhaustion and had been sleeping undisturbed ever since. Hank had immediately taken him into the infirmary to oversee his health. Not wanting Clark to be alone, Ororo had pulled up a chair beside his bed and maintained vigilance over him during the day and night. After examining him, Hank determined that Clark had been dehydrated and borderline starved. Ororo watched as Clark's bare chest, taped with electrodes monitoring his heart beat, rose and fell with every breath that he took. She just couldn't get over how fragile and vulnerable he looked. She knew that he was no longer a man of steel, nor invincible and it scared her. Anything could happen to him and he was defenseless.

She reached over and took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. It was ironic that they would meet again almost the same way they had before, several years earlier. She had been lost in an unfamiliar world hunted by those who had sought to use her powers and control her and now Clark was facing the same thing.

She had never expected to see him again, but the day the news reported a strange collapsing in the Arctic, things had changed greatly. While the collapse had struck Ororo as just an strange and bizarre occurrence in nature, Charles had a vision that it had been something more. The xmen had found the professor in his office, chanting in a strange tongue and carving ancient alien symbols onto his desk. While the members of her team had been baffled, Ororo had immediately recognized the symbols Clark had shown her years ago and knew instantly that he was in danger. After Charles regained his bearing, he had used Cerebro to pinpoint Clark's location in Russia.

"Y' been standing watch for hours, Stormy. Y' should really go get some rest and somethin' t' eat."

Ororo didn't have to look up to know that the speaker, the only person in the mansion who dared to call her by the horrid name "Stormy" was none other then her beau, Remy. Letting go of Clark's hand, she slowly rose from her chair and faced the Cajun who was starring down at her in concern. In his hand he was holding a mug and from the scent of it's contents, she could tell it was peppermint tea, her favorite. He handed it to her, and she smiled gratefully.

"I want to be here when he wakes up. The loss of his powers must be devestating to him and he really should not be alone," she murmured.

Remt nodded.

"Remy understands that you want to be here for your friend, but you won't be any good to him if you are exhausted, an' t' be honest, Remy don't like seein' his fiancee, worn t' de bone," he started.

Ororo felt her face grow warm. Remy had asked her to marry him six months ago and she had accepted. She didn't know why, but him mentioning thier engagement in the same room occupied by Clark made her slightly uncomfortable and she didn't have the slightest clue as to why that was. She knew she wasn't being fair to Remy and she felt guilty, but she couldn't bring herself to leave the spot she was rooted in. For the past two nights Remy had to sleep alone in her loft, while she stayed camped out watching over Clark. She knew it was hurting him, but she owed it to Clark to stick around.

"I know I have been neglecting you and I am sorry. I just did not want Clark to wake up in a foreign place and not have a familiar face to comfort him. I know too well how it feels to be in a strange place and not have anyone you know around," she murmured.

Remy smiled tenderly as he cupped her face in his hands gently forcing her to look at him.

"Y' don't have t' apologize, cherie. He's yo friend and Remy gets that y' feel de need t' be there fo' him. I jus miss y' dat's all," he said softly.

Ororo couldn't help but to feel her heart swell with adoration for the man standing in front of her. He could be head strong, stubborn and unreasonable at times but he could also be surprisingly understanding and compassionate as well.

"Let Remy fix y' somethin' t' eat, while y' take a shower and get changed into mo' comfortable clothes. When y' are finished y' can always come back down here," he reasoned.

Ororo smiled reluctantly. She _could _use a shower and her stomach was a bit empty, so she decided she would follow Remy's advice. Walking over to Hank, she placed a hand on the furry blue doctor's shoulder.

"If anything changes, I would appreciate if you call me immediately," she said softly.

Hank stared up at her with a twinkling in his eyes.

"Do not worry, my dear. You will be the second to know Clark's condition, after me of course," he assured warmly.

Ororo smiled.

"Thank you, my friend. I shall return shortly," she promised before following Remy out of the clinic.

Ororo took a moment to send one last concerned gaze at Clark over her shoulder. Remy nudged her gently with a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Ro. Homme's tough. He's gonna be fine. He's in good hands, he assured.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm letting you all know right now that this is not going to be strictly a Remy/Ororo story. I don't want to ruin the plot but expect someone else to throw their hat in for the affections of our favorite windrider ;)**

While Ororo headed up to her loft to shower, Remy headed towards the kitchen to prepare his fiancee something to eat. While he walked down the long carpeted hall of the mansion, he became lost in his thoughts. Ever since Ororo had returned from the mission of rescuing a powerless Clark, she had been walking around completely fixed on nursing Clark Kent back to health. He barely saw her around the mansion anymore. Every now in then she would breeze into the kitchen to fix Hank a fresh batch of coffee, or she would surface in the rec room couch to catch a cat nap, but other then that she could almost always be found in the infirmary keeping watch over Clark Kent. Remy hadn't mind her concern over the injured super powered man, for it was natural for Ororo to take care of those she cared about. However the intensity of her concern was what bothered Remy.

While he would never admit it aloud, a small part of him was jealous over how much attention Ororo was giving the other man. It wasn't a jealousy based on insecurity, it was more founded on his need of her being near him. He knew it was petty, but for five years he had been use to his Stormy's attention being completely focused on him, and now that it wasn't he didn't know how to take that. Kitty had advised him to be supportive and caring which he had done, but it hadn't been easy. It was difficult for him to go to bed for the past two days knowing that the woman he loved was somewhere other then beside him.

When he finally arrived in the kitchen, he found Anna and Logan lounging at the kitchen table with a comfortable silence settled between them. Anna was nursing a glass of white wine, and Logan was tilted back in his chair rolling a cigar between his two thick fingers lazily, with an open can of beer in his other hand. Usually the professor didn't allow alcohol on the school ground's, but Xavier was away with Emma at some conference on the island of Genosha and Anna and Logan both were apparently taking advantage of his time away.

"What brings you down here so late, sugah?" Anna inquired curiously as he mumbled a greeting.

"Remy finally convinced Stormy to take a break from de infirmary and while she is washin up, Remy figured he would make her somethin t' eat," he informed opening the refrigerator and peering inside.

Anna pushed back from the table and joined him at the refrigerator.

"Kitty put her a plate of chicken tenders aside. Ah can cut them up and make her a salad if ya like. Ah know how Ororo fancies chicken salad," she offered.

Remy smiled.

"Merci, cherie. Remy tink's Stormy would prefer that over Emma's three day old pasta," he chuckled.

"So I take it Ro finally left the kid's side? How's he doin?" Logan asked gruffly.

Remy shrugged.

"He seemed t' be stable. Jus' restin, I guess," he said casually reaching around Anna and pulling a beer off the bottom shelf of the icebox.

Anna grinned.

"If Ah would have known dat's who Storm was cozy with all those years ago Ah personally would have made sure he stayed. Lord knows that Ah would be more then willin' to let that fine piece of man make an honest woman out of me," she said deviously causing Logan to chuckle.

Remy snorted rudely.

"Don't bother, cherie. Remy doubt that _any _man can make an honest woman out of y'," he said amused.

His words were teasing and held no traces of maliciousness. That had become their relationship. She would try to push his buttons and he would retaliate by doing the same to her.

Anna eyes twinkled with amusement.

"If Ah can recall, y' almost managed t' once before y' decide t' indulge in y' fantasy with Ro. Humor me, how is that workin out now that super boy manage to creep back into her life? It must be cookin' your goose that she is spendin so much time with him," she teased.

Remy grinned.

"Non, Remy ain't de jealous type. Besides, everyone knows dat Stormy has eyes fo' one man, unlike some femme' Remy knows," he drawled slyly.

Logan look between the Cajun and the brunette and made a crucial decision. He would rather not be anywhere near when this conversation was happening. Although he sensed that they were being playful with each other, he knew from past experiences that things could become easily explosive between the two ex lovers.

"I think I'm going to call it a night. Tell Ro' I'll see her around, Gumbo," Logan mumbled pushing away from the table.

Anna turned and flashed Logan a bright smile.

"Goodnight, sugah," she purred as he retreated from the kitchen.

Once he was gone, Anna put the diced chicken into the microwave before walking over to the Cajun slowly.

"Ah know if you were mah man Ah would give you all the attention you wanted," she said sweetly tracing the outline of his jawbone with the finger tip of her leather glove on her hand.

Remy laughed and captured her wrist, lowering it away from his face. There was no denying the sultry look in her eyes. She made it clear every chance she had that she still lusted after Remy, and while he was flattered, he knew there wasn't the slightest chance he would satisfy her lust.

"I hate t' break dis to y' darlin, but after y' left me to freeze t' death, Remy realized dat yo kind of love was one he could live without. Believe it or not, when two people love each other they don't hurt each other as much as we did," he said firmly.

Anna raised an eyebrow dubiously.

"Correct me if Ah am wrong, but y' ain't above hurtin Ororo. We both know what you did that risked you screwin' up you two's relationship days before you ask her to marry ya, darlin," she reminded innocently.

Remy tensed. The conversation had taken an abrupt turn into uncomfortable territory and judging from the regret on Anna's face, she seemed to have realize she had taken the taunting too far.

Several months ago he and Ororo had a huge explosive fight that had ended with her leaving the mansion for a week. Remy could remember the argument vividly. Ororo had been upset with him because he had been taken their relationship for granted by refusing to make the ultimate commitment, and he had accused her of being too controlling and impatient. Ugly words had been exchanged, and he had said something that had been cold and harsh.

*_Flashback*_

_"What about what I want, Remy? It's been nearly five years and we are in the exact same place where we first started! Something has got to give," she had protested._

_Remy bristled as he glared at her standing a feet away in a gorgeous black evening dress that hugged all her curves. They had just returned from an evening out on the town with Scott and Emma. For some reason, on the drive back to the mansion, Ororo had wanted to have a serious discussion about their relationship and Remy was too filled up on Southern Comfort to want to listen._

_"Why do we have t' do dis, cherie? Tings have been great up t' dis point. Why change tings? Ain't y' happy?" he had demanded frustrated._

_Hurt had flashed across her blue eyes._

_"It amazes me that for someone who claims to know me so well, you really do not seem to know me at all," she said softly turning to walk away._

_He grabbed her by her arm gently, forcing her to face him._

_"What's dat suppose to mean?" he asked angrily._

_She snatched away from him seething._

_"I have confided in you in many times what I want out of life. I do not wish for my legacy to only consist of being the leader of the infamous xmen team and a school teacher. I want to be married, and have children. I want a family," she cried._

_Her statement had scared the living hell out of Remy. The thought of having an offspring terrified him. Especially after all the dark things he had done in his lifetime. He didn't want to sire a child who would grow to hate him for his less then honorable past. Not thinking Ororo would understand this, he had become defensive._

_"Remy really wish y' stop tryin' t' controll him. It's like y' ain't never happy, and nothin' I do is good enough fo' de goddess," he snapped._

_Ororo laughed in disbelief._

_"I am sorry. I did not think my dreams were something that were controlling you. We have spoken of my desires for a family for years, and each time you would make some lame excuse. If you do not want the same thing as I do, then maybe I should find someone who does," she said coldly walking away._

_Her words had stung and the thought of her leaving him caused him to panic, so out of anger and fear he had said something that he wished he never did._

_"Remy is startin' t' t'ink dat de real reason Forge walked on y' is because he might have regretted askin' someone as uncompromisin' as y' t' be his wife."_

_The moment she had stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to look at him, the pain he had seen in her eyes made him want to die._

She had been so upset that she rushed out of the mansion and hadn't bothered to tell anyone where she had gone. Several days had gone by and when she had yet to return, Remy, driven by anger and hurt, had done something in a drunken stupor that if Ororo ever found out, he was certain she would never speak to him again. The thought of his actions left a bitter taste in his mouth. Ever since that day he had done his best to make up what he had done by being attentive to Ororo and even putting aside his own fears of permanent commitment by asking her to marry him. The only person who knew his dark secret was Anna.

When he failed to answer her, Anna continued.

"Ro's a great gal, but she will never be like us, Remy. Bless her heart, she can't help but to see the good and the best in people. Ah am certain she does not have one bad bone in her body. We, on the other hand, know better. Ya know that I have my flaws and Ah know you have yours and we don't try to pretend otherwise."

Remy swallowed deeply. Anna's words struck a nerve because it was partly true. Being with Anna always had felt right, because deep down he knew she was just as twisted internally as he was.

There was always a strong connection between them and he suspected that they would always be, but lately Anna had been laying on her charm more thickly and while he knew he would never fall, it was becoming harder to resist her advances. After all, he was still a red blooded male. He was still very attracted to the southern drawling brunette, and had lingering feelings for her, but he wanted Ororo. There was no doubt in his mind about that.

"Ya can pretend not to notice, but Storm still may have unspoken feelings for that alien cutie, if her actions of late is any indication," she started.

Remy quickly cut her off.

"Y' are right, Anna. Stormy ain't like us. She doesn't have the ability to deceitfully lie, manipulate and be...," he trailed off with a huge lump in his throat, "She is faithful."

"Do ya love her enough to tell her why you _really _asked her to marry ya? Or do you know that if she was learn the truth that she would probably never forgive you?" she asked softly.

The 'ding' of the microwave broke the tension between them rudely reminding Remy that Ororo's dinner was done.

Remy cleared his throat softly and stared at her seriously.

"Dere is no need fo' Ro t' know what happened. It will only hurt her and break her heart. Telling her the truth would only suceed in clearing my conscience and Remy's willin' t' suffer with what he did fo' de rest of his life if it means sparin' Stormy any pain," he said barely above a whisper.

Anna surprised him by taking his hand in hers.

"Ah understand. Ya love her, but don't you think that she deserves to be with someone who doesn't feel the need to lie to protect her?" she asked gently.

Remy lowered his head in shame. Anna was right. Ororo did deserve a lot better then him, but he couldn't give her up, even if he wanted to. She meant to much to him and while he knew he would never be good enough for the Nubian goddess, he was willing to dedicate a lifetime trying to get to the point where he might be.

"Remy should be going," he stated quietly, "Stormy's waitin."

"Later handsome," she whispered watching sadly as he retrieved Ororo's dinner and walked out of the kitchen.

As Remy trudged up the stairs towards Ororo's loft, he could feel his consciences began to nag him insistently. Damn Anna for bringing up the very thing he had worked so hard to try to forget. He had spent the past six months trying to make up for a colossal mistake he made that he regretted with every ounce of his being. Karma was a bitch and he knew that if he wasn't careful, Karma would come to collect payment for his past transgression.

He came to a stop in front of Ororo's room and inhaled deeply. Now wasn't the time to drag up ugly memories from the past. Pushing the dark thoughts to the back of his mind, he twisted the knob and stepped into the room. He was immediately greeted with the sounds of the shower running in the bathroom and Ororo's soft singing. A slow, sensuous smile crept across his lips. Her singing was one of things he had always found completely exotic and beautiful about her. Setting her dinner down on the dresser, he shrugged out of his trench coat and tossed in on the bed before kicking off his boots.

He wanted, no, needed her to take away his guilt by holding him in his arms.

He had missed the feel of her soft, ample body pressed against his at night, he had missed the way she would brighten his day with one of her secret smiles during the day, but most of all he missed her.

He was preparing to surprise her by joining her in the shower, when a soft noise outside the balcony caused him to halt abruptly. He stood completely still listening intently. His red on black eyes narrowed suspiciously as he heard the sound again, only this time it was much softer. Someone was lurking outside of the window. He could sense it. Swiftly, he grabbed a playing card out of his trench coat pocket ready to go on the defense. He knew it could be Logan hanging out on the roof top enjoying one of his cherished cigars, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Who's dere?" he demanded, slowly walking towards the balcony. The queen of hearts card in caught between his middle finger and thumb glowed an eerie pink as he crept silently across the room.

He received no answer, which made him even more wary. If it had been Logan then the feral man would have retorted with some wise ass reply.

Suddenly a shadow emerged from behind the glass doors leading to the balcony and Remy got a good look at the intruder. The man was dressed in green leather, with black shades hiding his eyes and a hood covering his head. Clutched in his right hand appeared to be a well crafted state of the art bow. The man stood there almost as if he was a statue, unmoving and silent.

"Who are y'?" Remy demanded.

The man walked into the room boldly with no apparent fear in his demeanor. Whoever the man was, it seemed that he was confident, or arrogant, enough to take on Remy, which irked the Cajun. The man stopped a few feet away from him.

"Who I am is someone who you shouldn't be concerned with. All you should be concerned with is telling me where you are holding Clark Kent," he said evenly.

Remy frowned. It stunned him that someone had managed to find the whereabouts of Clark so quickly, but then again Ororo had warned him that a very powerful man was suspected to be in pursuit of the powerful alien lying sleeping in the infirmary. He knew he should do something to alert the others that there had been a breach to the security of the mansion, but Remy wasn't too threatened by the intruder. After all, he was just one man and he didn't seem too dangerous.

"Homme, Clark should be de least of _your _concerns right now. Remy don't take t' kindly to intruders evadin' his home," he warned, his voice low and dangerous.

The man laughed.

"What a coincidence. I personally don't take too kindly to people kidnaping my friends. Clark Kent is my _main_ concern and if you won't tell me where he is I will be forced to ask your pretty little white haired friend and I don't think you want that, so I'll ask you one last time. Where is Clark?" he said coldly.

The threat towards Ororo wasn't lost on Remy and it made his temper flare. Nobody was going to hurt his Stormy. Growling, he lifted his hand to fling the card when something pierced his neck causing him to drop the card suddenly. The playing card slowly drifted to the ground in a pile of black ashes. He lifted his hand to the object and found it was some small kind of dart emitting an electrical pulse. Remy could feel his whole body go still and unable to move he fell roughly to the ground.

The man knelt next to him with a sympathetic, yet condescending smile on his face.

"Whoever you are, you are probably thinking it would have been less painful if you cooperated. Don't worry. In a couple of minutes the paralysis will wear off and you will regain full use of your body again. Hopefully the woman will be a bit more truthful. I know you would hate to see her in a similar predicament," he said quietly before slinging his bow over his shoulder and walking away.

Remy could only watch helplessly and paralyzed as the man made his way outside the door where Ororo had just concluded her shower.


	5. Chapter 5

As Oliver waited silently outside the bathroom where the white haired woman had disappeared into earlier, he began to ponder silently on exactly what the hell type of school he had just trespassed on. From his earlier years as a small child to his later ones as an young adult he had attended several exclusive private schools, but none of the institutions he had ever been enrolled in had as much sophisticated and powerful surveillance equipment as this place had. From the looks of all the cameras and the ground motion sensors, it seemed they were protecting government property rather then a bunch of bratty kids.

It had been very difficult to get onto the estate without triggering several well place alarms, but Oliver had manage to pull off the impossible. Once he had gotten passed the security, he had spent several minutes hiding in the shadows scooping out the different rooms of the school on the outskirts of the mansion trying to decide which room would be his entry point. Several rooms had contained what appeared to be young teens and not wanting to involve children, he continued his surveillance, searching for a place more acceptable to penetrate. After careful consideration, he had chosen the highest room in the building, which appeared to be the mansion's attic.

Moving swiftly, and quietly as possible, he had mounted the balcony and been prepared to walk in when he had spotted her...

A woman had been gathering her things for a shower and while he had certainly have seen many strange types of people during his time in Metropolis, she had to be the strangest. He had been close enough to see that she was a woman from African decent if her dark smooth black skin was any indication. She was slim and had the height and legs that most models would kill for. What had intrigued him the most was the flash of blue eyes he had caught peeking from her black long lashes, and the flowing long white hair cascading down her shoulders. This woman was definitely a far cry from ordinary, and while he knew he had a better chance of gaining the element of surprise by cornering her in the smaller room in which she was now occupying, he resisted. It wasn't that he _minded_ seeing the tall shockingly beautiful woman in all her bare glory, but the honor in him wouldn't let him invade her privacy in that way.

After all, he was still a gentlemen...

Five minutes later, the bathroom door opened and the woman emerged humming, her white hair hanging damp around her shoulders and he noticed several beads of water still clung to her nearly dry skin. She was wearing tight shorts that clung stubbornly to her like a second skin and a red tank top that could hardly contain her ample breast that was peeking out at the top. He got the feeling that the woman was not ashamed of being nude seeing how she was practically near it. He was close enough to her to catch the scent of vanilla and cinnamon radiating off her skin. He bit back a whistle of appreciation. This woman was definitely very easy on the eyes and the senses.

"Remy," she cried rushing to the Cajun's side, jolting Oliver from his thoughts.

Oliver tilted his head and watched curious at the woman's strong concern over the man lying on the floor. Judging from the looks of it, they were more then just companions. The way she cradled his head in her lap and ran her fingers through the man's long auburn hair was proof of a deeper connection. Lovers, perhaps....

She leapt to her feet and began to run towards the entrance of the room, probably to go get help. Oliver couldn't allow her to do that. He had already spent to much time observing her when he should have sprang into action minutes earlier. Reluctantly he lifted his bow and aimed. Her hand was centimeters from the knob on her bedroom door when his arrow whizzed by her ear lodging itself into the wooden door inches from her head.

Whirling around she came face to face with him and she looked extremely pissed off.

"Who are you? What did you do to Remy? I swear by the goddess if you have harmed him in any way," she started angrily.

Oliver smirked. Judging from the fierce anger in the woman's eyes, he realized his suspicions had been correct. She was definitely the man lying motionless on the floor lover.

"Oh your boyfriend, I presume? Don't worry, he'll be fine. Just tell me where my friend Clark is and I will leave the way I came," he promised.

At the mention of Clark, he noticed fear creep up in the woman's eyes. Her slender lips molded into a frown of displeasure and her body became noticeably rigid. There was no longer any doubt that he was in the right place. Her reaction had just confirmed that.

"I do not have the slightest clue of whom you are speaking of," she started.

Oliver quickly cut her off. He wasn't in any mood to play any games.

"You look like an intelligent woman, and I assure you that neither lying or playing dumb suits you. I don't want to hurt you, but I will find my friend whether you help me or not," he said in a deep distorted voice as he closed the distance between them.

Her eyes began to white over as she backed away from him baring her teeth defiantly. He could see the bluish electricity dancing at her finger tips as he drew closer to her. He noticed that the He stopped his approach watching her cautiously. She was definitely no ordinary woman, and he was beginning to realize that the school was no ordinary school.

"If you make any attempt to get near Clark, I will be forced to stop you by any means necessary," she warned coldly.

Despite her earlier vague display of power, he couldn't help but to laugh.

"What are you going to do? Blind me with your beauty? Or better yet, show me how you just made your eyes roll into the back of your head," he taunted.

A part of him expected her to be amused and somewhat charmed by his statement, however he did not expect what happened next. She took him by surprise by ducking low and sweeping her leg across his ankles causing him to fall on his back startled. He tried to get back to his feet, but she threw a low kick, the heel of her feet connecting roughly with his gut.

He let out a low painful grunt as he doubled over clutching his midsection, the wind obviously knocked out of him.

_"Well that hurt..." _he thought to himself as waves of pain washed over him.

"And I believe that you under estimated me," she said evenly.

Mocking her wasn't the brightest thing he had ever done, and he definitely regretted it. A part of him was glad that he had decided to do this mission alone. If Bart or A.C. was there to witness this woman kicking his ass, he would _never _here the end of it. Stone would have more grace not to bring it up and Dinah....

He shuddered at how Dinah would taunt him. Sometimes the shrieking girl's teasing could be far more ego crushing and crippling then A.C. and Bart combine, which said a lot.

As she moved to strike him again, he lunged at her, capturing both of her wrist firmly in her stopping any further assault from her. He had been caught off guard once. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. However that didn't deter the blue eyed beauty as she struggled against him. They whirled around the room, exchanging blows, struggling for control; knocking things over in the process. Oliver quickly gained the upper hand and taking advantage he pushed her up against the nearest wall pinning her hands over heads so she couldn't get free. They both were breathing heavily and Oliver could swear he heard thunder rumbling over the roof above them.

"Listen, lady," he wheezed, wincing as he felt a sharp pain surge through his chest once more," Just tell me what I need to know."

She laughed harshly.

"Why so you can take him back to your ruthless boss Lex Luthor and have him controlled? Unfortunately I know what that psychotic man is capable of and I would _die _first before I allow Clark to be delivered to that maniac. Besides, I believe Lex will be very disappointed to know that Clark is powerless and is no use to him," she growled.

Her comments startled him.

Clark was powerless? That would explain why he hadn't been able to be found, and what did she mean that she knew what Lex was capable of? Was it possible that this woman was one of Lex's past experiments?

"Listen, I'm one of the good guys," he tried.

The woman bristled, and the expression on her face showed that she wasn't believing that.

"How do I know that to be true? You broke into this school, you somehow overpowered Remy and you are searching for a man who is wanted by those who only wish to exploit him. How does these things make you want of the good guys?" she asked dubiously.

He didn't know how to answer to that, because she had a point. His gut told him that from the way she was acting, she was defending Clark instead of holding him hostage, but he needed assurance. He wasn't ready to trust her blindly. No matter how attractive she was.

"If Clark is here, it is of the utmost importance that I find him. He is my friend and I mean him no harm. If I meant to capture him under hostile intents would I have come alone?" he asked.

The woman eyes slowly faded from being all white and went back to their original crystal blue. She stared at him intently. He was seeing that she was contemplating the truth in his statement.

"Are you leading me to believe that the reason you have broke into this school because you are protecting Clark from Lex? How come you did not just come in through the front door?" she asked straight forward.

"Because I did not know whether or not you are you were the enemy. My actions may be questionable, but you are not above reproach. You extracted Clark Kent from a war camp and instead of returning him home back to his friends and family, you took him here instead. Why shouldn't I be suspicious of _you_?" he challenged.

The woman opened her mouth to respond, when the door to the room open slowly. Oliver smiled at the sight of the intruder.

"If you don't believe me, why don't you just ask Clark himself?" he suggested.

The woman whirled around and let out a soft gasp. The look on her face erased any lingering doubts that she may have been the enemy.

"Clark...you're awake!"


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Sorry for the delay. Review and I'll keep writing!**

_**Somewhere in Montana....**_

Chloe hid behind a box of crates as she heard the footsteps of guards rush past her as alarms screamed throughout the building. Breathing heavily, she poked her head out around the corner making sure the coast was clear before bolting towards a window that was slightly open. Several strands of her blonde hair was matted to her sweaty forehead, and she had dark circles around her eyes. When they had first bought her there, she had to go through countless of test that made her brain nearly go into over drive. They fed her nothing but scraps of bread and murky water which left her feeling sick and famished. Earlier that day they had stopped the torture and told her if she helped them find several terrorist that they would let her go, and exhausted and emotionally drained she had agreed to the task without thinking about the consequences. However it wasn't long before her brain and the computer began to pick up a particular pattern. That's when she had realized, horrified, that she hadn't been targeting terrorist. She had been systematically giving up the locations of friends of Clark and Oliver. Dinah and A.C were in the custody of Lex because of her and seconds earlier she had unknowingly given up the location of Bart and Stone.

She had managed to escape her cell and now every armed guard in the warehouse was in pursuit of her. She was tired and she was weak, but she knew she had to escape and find away to save the group of vigilante's that she had managed to endanger. She knew if they had managed to get her to find Dinah, A.C, Bart and Oliver, it was only a matter of time she would give up Oliver and worst case scenario, Clark. Before all this, she use to think that having a mind that was far more intelligent then an average human had it's perks, but at that moment she didn't feel that way. She felt used and exploited and angry.

She was halfway through the window, when she felt a vice like grip around her ankle yank her down. She managed to break loose, but a pair of strong arms wrapped around her torso yanking her from the window and throwing her down to the cold concrete floor roughly.

"No! Let go of me!"Chloe demanded as the two guards dragged her down a long cold hallway kicking and screaming. She had tried to escape only to fail miserably, and now she was being taken back to the room where she had been held prisoner for the past few days. The thought of going back into that cell made her frantic, and using all of her strength she tried to resist.

As much as she tried to fight, it was no use. Tears slid down her face as they roughly strapped her wrists down to the arms of the chair and chained her legs together, preventing her from any further movement. As the door slammed shut, she began to sob softly with despair. This was a nightmare!

A flash of her dark haired Kryptonian friend appeared in her head. Where was Clark? Why hadn't he come to save her yet? Something bad would have had to happen to keep him from coming to her rescue. The only other logical thing to think was that something had kept Jimmy from warning Clark.

Thinking about Jimmy, fresh new tears fell from beneath Chloe's long eyelashes and slowly rolled down her quivering cheeks. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle it if something have happened to him.

She was in love with him. There was no longer any doubt. She loved him more then she had ever loved anyone in her life, and that included Clark. Jimmy was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. He had just proposed to her and before she could soak it all in, the DDS had stormed into the coffee café, and had arrested her on trumped up charges of hacking into the government secret data base under the suspicion of being a terrorist. The thought that she might never see him again made her sob even more.

Her crying was momentarily interrupted when her captor, Jacob, walked in shaking his head disappointed.

"Ah, Ms. Sullivan, I am quite disappointed in you. You are a genius when it comes to computers but yet, you are seriously lacking in the common sense department. When will you ever learn that escape is futile. We had an arrangement. You do as we ask and help us capture these terrorist and the government will release you and you can go back to the life you had," he said condescendingly.

Chloe glared at him through her tears of anger. She had only spent three day with her captor, but already she despised him greatly.

"You are a liar. You aren't going to let me go, and these aren't _terrorist_ that you are having me track down. You are delusional if you don't think that I know that the people you are having me track are hero's and that the slime ball that you are working for is the villain," she spat.

Jacob smiled tolerantly as he leaned over her with a patient look in his dark eyes hidden behind his thick framed glasses.

"In this world, misguided vigilante's are terrorist against our government. Our very way of life," he said slowly as if he was speaking to a child.

Chloe snorted rudely.

"That's ironic. The government is in place to protect it's citizens from corruption and evil, but what is in place to protect the citizens from the corruption and evil of the government? That is why this world needs vigilante's. To end the corruption that your boss is so caught up in," she said hotly.

Jacob laughed amused.

"Freaks like you have no room to be self righteous. I mean I know all about your past as an reporter. You more then anyone else should know how freaks like you present a danger to our society," he said curtly.

Chloe's face darkened with unbridled anger.

"Freaks like me? If you took just one second to put aside your paranoid bigotry, you would realize that not all of us "freaks" are out to reign terror on society," she snapped.

"Enough stalling! We want the final coordinates to this last person, Sullivan. Now you can either help us by doing this the easy way or you can be forced," he growled.

Chloe smiled coldly.

"Do what you want to me. You will never get me to tell you a damn thing," she said evenly.

Jacob glared at her with, his mouth twisted in an ugly sneer.

"As you know, your mother had the extraordinary ability to make people do what she wanted. We have managed to create a formula mixed with liquidize meteor rocks that when injected into the subject, it allows us to utilize the same control as your mother did," he explained, while he prepared a syringe filled with a dark green substance.

Chloe became paralyzed with fear when her captor mention her mothers name. The last time she had seen her mother, she was comatose in Bell Reed.

"If you have hurt my mother in anyway, so help me god," she hissed.

The man laughed, unimpressed with her threat.

"Don't worry. Your mother was taking a rather long nap. I don't think she minded that we took some of her blood to experiment with," he said darkly.

Chloe tensed as she felt the sting of the cold needle enter her skin and inject the serum inside of her. She closed her eyes, trying to fight the effect the chemical was having over her but it was useless. She realized that she was about to give up the location of the Green Arrow, her friend, and she was powerless to stop it from happening. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she helplessly fell under the control of her captor. He leaned in towards her, his eyes shining with triumphant and glee.

"Now, once more, Chloe. What are the last coordinates?"

*******

Ten minutes later, Jacobs walked out of Chloe's holding cell and walked into the surveillance room where his boss was waiting for him impatiently via satellite com.

"Did you find the location of the other vigilante?" the cold voice of Tessa Mercer came across the screen.

Jacobs nodded. It hadn't been easy, and he had to use a stronger dose on the feisty blonde, but he had eventually obtained the information that he needed.

"Yes, ma'am. We ran our coordinates through our global database and we now know for certain that the last remaining vigilante is located in Wenchester, New York."

The red head smiled victoriously.

"Excellent work. I take it that the serum worked as expected?" she inquired.

Jacob shifted slightly.

"Yes, but I had to up the dosage to make her stay under my control for a longer period," he informed.

Tessa smiled deepen.

"Once we find Lex, he will be most pleased. Jacob, I want you to prepare several syringes for Bart, Oliver, Dinah and A.C. I want them to be one of the teams sent to retrieve the Green Arrow. Under the control of the serum, he will stand no chance," she said darkly.

Jacob had to admit her plan was genius, but there was just one flaw...

"Ms. Mercer, the affects of the serum only last a certain amount of time. You will need someone...," he started.

Tessa cut him off with a piercing glare.

"I know what I am doing, Jacob. I will have one team to accompany our merry band of abnormal and make sure they maintain complete control over them. I cannot take any chances of letting the Green Arrow slip away. He might be our only clue to finding Lex," she said curtly.

Jacob nodded.

"Yes, Ms. Mercer. What do you want us to do with Chloe now that we have gotten our full use out of her?" he asked stiffly.

Tessa shrugged.

"Lex didn't specify what he wanted done with her, but I know how Mr. Luthor hates for anyone to leave a mess that might lead a trail back to him, so there is only one option," she said firmly.

Jacob tensed.

He didn't like the sound of what she was suggesting. He had signed on to the project to help stop terrorism, not to do what she was suggesting...

"Just so we are clear, what option is that, Ms. Mercer?" he asked cautiously.

The red head smiled coolly.

"Terminate Chloe Sullivan."


	7. Chapter 7

_________________________________________________________________________________________________**__________________________________________________________**

**AN: I have been so inspired lately and so with that here is another chappie!**

Clark looked over at Ororo who was starring at him stunned and he smiled at her warmly. She was standing barefooted in a black shirt two sizes too big for her and her hair was slick back and wet from her recent shower. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide with concern, but Clark flashed her a smile assuring her that he was okay before turning his gaze towards The Green Arrow who was standing near Ororo.

Tons of questions were circling through his mind like why was Oliver there, and how in the hell the billionaire owner of Queen's industries manage to just "show up" at Xavier's school for the gifted? Suddenly his eyes drifted over to where a motionless tall form was lying on the floor and he was startled to recognize the man as Ororo's boyfriend. Suddenly he had a bad feeling in his gut. Waisting no time, he raced over to Remy and knelt next to the fallen mutant.

"What happened? Is he ok?" Clark asked, his blue eyes filled with trepidation and concerned.

Ororo joined Clark at Remy's side and frowned grimly.

"I am afraid there was a misunderstanding...," she sighed before explaining what had happened.

Reaching down, Clark gently plucked the paralyzing arrow out of the side of the Cajuns neck before glaring at his friend.

"Oliver, tell me that you didn't..! Did you try to attack Ororo too?" Clark asked frowning at his friend.

Oliver laughed.

"Actually It was more like _she _attacked _me. _I underestimated her and I admit that she gave me a rather punishing lesson in humility," he said wryly causing Ororo to chuckle lightly.

Clark shot the Green Arrow a dirty look who immediatly erased the charming smile from his face.

"Look, I'm sorry, Clark. I really am. I was looking for you and caught up to you here and to get past the tight security, I had to kind of break in. When he became hostile I had to take him out. If I would have known that these were your friends instead of your captors, I would have used better judgement," Oliver said defensively.

Clark's expression clearly showed that he was nowhere near satisfied with Oliver's explanation.

"Oliver, Remy wasn't an enemy. He is an ally of Ororo, which, by the way if it wasn't for her I would have been killed!" Clark said sternly.

"Gee, Kent. Do you think you could calm down enough to try calling me by my code name? After all, they are in place for a reason," the man dressed in all green leather growled.

Clark sighed.

"It's ok, Oliver. She is a friend of mine and I trust her completely. Your identity and secret is safe with her. Ororo, this is my friend, Oliver. Oliver, this is my friend, Ororo," Clark introduced.

Oliver pulled off his shades and stared at her admiringly. While Clark was blind when it came to certain things, it was obvious that his Kryptonian friend had perfect vision when it came to befriending beautiful women.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Oliver as he stared wide eyed at Ororo.

"Wait...Chloe once mention a brief run in Clark had with a powerful weather wielding goddess like woman...with snow white hair and baby blue eyes that most woman would kill for and I can't imagine knowing a lot of women running around with that kind of unique physical description," he mused aloud.

Ororo smiled blushing.

"Yes I am Storm and, I believe Chloe may have exaggerated somewhat. I am most definitely not a Goddess," she said humbly.

"You're going to have alot of trouble convincing me otherwise," Oliver said flashing her a charming flirtatious smile causing Ororo's blush to deepen.

"Trust me Ororo somwhere in all that charm, there is an apology that is comming," Clark assured while giving Oliver a pointed glare.

Oliver gave Ororo an apologetic smile.

"I really want to apologize for breaking into your room and giving you a scare," he s tarted.

"No need to apologize. It was all a misunderstanding and I understand your concern and your fierce need to protect Clark. Actually, I appreciate how far you would go protect our mutual friend," she smiled warmly.

"Watch where you rest dem eyes, homme, and speak for yourself, Stormy. Remy don't take to kindly to being ambushed." a low growl came from across the room interrupting the conversation.

Ororo, Clark and Oliver looked over to see Remy as. He began to sit up slowly, mumbling angrily in French.

Oliver smirked.

"I figured he would have unkind words for me when he came to, but he must be really pissed if he feels the need to insult me in another language. One he obviously speaks rather fluently although the dialect escapes me," Oliver murmured.

"You speak French?" Ororo asked surprised.

Oliver smiled modestly.

"I actually speak ten different languages. I learned French when I was a young child. My parents wanted to make sure that I was worldly," he started.

"Who is dis fool?" Remy grumbled shooting murderous looks in The Green Arrow's direction.

Ororo shook her head, suddenly feeling apprehensive.

"Remy, mind your temper. This all was just a dreadful misunderstanding," Ororo tried.

"I apologize that my actions causd you great discomfort. I am the Green arrow," Oliver started.

Remy snorted rudely.

"Why the green arrow, homme'? De code name de _flammin' _arrow was already taken?" Remy asked spitefully, his red on black eyes still flashing with anger.

Oliver smirked in silent response further antagonizing the extremely pissed off Cajun before turning his gaze back towards Ororo and Clark. He could tell from the intense way that they held each others gaze that there was something major unspoken between them. He had never seen Clark look at any woman the way he was looking at Ororo. Not even Lana. Clark always thought he hid his emotions well from others, but besides Chloe, Oliver was one of the only people who saw through Clark

He cleared his throat softly.

"I apologize. I think I am just going to go try to raise Bart and Stone on the com, again. They should have checked in by now. I'll be outside on the balcony," he informed quickly before disappearing across the room leaving Ororo, Remy and Clark standing together in an awkward silence. Ororo ran her hand through her hair self consciously and Clark's eyes widened with surprise as he took notice of the very shiny object on her finger.

"Your engaged," he said with a half smile.

Ororo looked down at the ring on her hand and smiled shyly and Remy wrapped his arm around her almost possessively.

"Oui. We are t' be married dis Spring," Remy informed before flashing him a smile, "Y' should come. Remy knows dat it would make his Stormy very happy if you were in attendance."

Ororo flushed deeply. The conversation had taken a turn from being awkward to downright uncomfortable. The last thing she wanted was for Clark to be at her wedding.

It would be too unnerving for her, and could only imagine the discomfort Clark would feel...

Clark cleared his throat softly and looked sadly at the white haired woman.

"Ororo, I must leave. If Oliver and I stay any longer we will be risking putting you and the others in danger," he tried, desperate to change the subject.

"Clark, this past year this school has been invaded by the government, almost blown to pieces by extremist members of Friends Of Humanity, and infiltrated by contracted assassins. We have seen our share of danger and we do not fear it. We face it; especially when it comes to protecting dear friends of ours," she smiled.

Clark returned her smile.

"Thank you, Ororo. You are a great friend for sticking with me through all of this," he said softly.

Ororo smiled faintly.

"If I was a great friend I would have not let the day we spent beneath the cherry tree been the last time we saw each other for a span of five years," she said lightly.

Clark shook his head.

"I didn't make any attempt to reach out either, Ororo. I guess that I thought it would be easier for the both of us if we just went back to our separate lives and forget anything ever happened," Clark said feeling slightly uncomfortable with the way Remy was glaring at him.

Ororo laughed trying to lighten the heavy mood that fell over the room.

"I know it was easy for you to forget, Clark. You face worse things then my nasty storms on a daily bases," she pointed out with a smile as she faced her vanity mirror trying to force her long damp hair into a ponytail holder that was being stubbborn.

_"Ororo forgetting you was never easy...it was impossible."_Clark thought to himself silently as stared at her feeling his emotions conflict. It had hurt that she had left, but at the same time he never begrudge her for her choice. He knew that going back to the only home she had ever known would make her happy and in the end that was all he wanted for her. Before he could reply to her statement, Anna burst into the loft looking frantic.

"Ah heard some loud commotion coming from up here! Is everything ok, sugah? What happened to Remy?" Anna exclaimed rushing to her friends side.

After Ororo quickly explained the situation to the native Mississippi woman, Oliver suddenly re entered the room looking troubled.

"Not to be rude, but now that I have found you Clark, we need to leave and I need to get you back to Smallville where you will be safe," he warned,

"What is it, Oliver? What's wrong?" Clark asked worried.

"Bart and A.C are not picking up on the emergency frequency which means they ran into Lex's people manage to capture the others, it's only a matter of time that they find me. I have to leave. I don't want to risk the chance of leading them here," Oliver said firmly.

Anna frowned.

"These people sound dangerous. You can't possibly be thinking about taking them on by yourself," Anna protested.

"Ok, so what do you suggest?" Oliver asked curiously.

Ororo smiled.

"Let us help. In doing so, we will take away their element of surprise and momentum and use it against them," she started.

Oliver nodded impressed.

"Some has obviously read The Art OF War. Beautiful and brilliantly strategic. Are you sure you are not the goddess to rule all goddesses?" Oliver asked coyly causing Ororo to smile shyly.

Remy frowned and Clark fought back a smile while casting a disapproving smile in his billionaire friend direction.

"Ah am going to take Remy down to the infirmary to see Hank about some aspirin for his head. Hopefully that will give ya some time to get caught up with these fine gentlemen, Ro," the southern brunette winked deviously before leading a brooding Remy out of the loft.

Once the door had closed shut, Oliver faced Clark with a look of admiration on his face.

"Clark I had to tell you, out of all the meteor infected we have ever came across, these women has got to be the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. I can't believe you kept this place a secret from me," Oliver tsked shaking his head.

Clark cleared his throat and glared at Oliver not in the mood to entertain Oliver's attraction to Ororo and her friend Anna.

"Oliver, try to stay focus," Clark growled.

Oliver sighed relenting.

"Fine. One way to get me back on track would be to tell me what the hell went wrong at your Fortress of Solitude," Oliver said patiently.

Clark inhaled deeply before he began to explain to his friend of the events that has transpired over the course of the past few days.

"....."

"...and so that's what happened at the Fortress of Solitude. I don't have my powers and I don't know where Lex is," Clark sighed softly as he finished filling Oliver in on what had happened to him that had caused him to go missing.

"Is there anyway we can help get your powers back?" Ororo asked anxiously.

"Clark's father tends to be a little unforgiving. He's probably taken your powers as a way of punishing you," Oliver pointed out.

Clark shook his head sadly.

"No, this time feels different. I came too close to letting Lex control me and who knows all the destruction and mayhem I could have caused? None of this would be happening if I had done what was necessary to stop Lex in the first place," he said quietly.

Ororo rested her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. She could tell Clark was becoming more frustrated as the situation dragged on and the last thing anyone needed was for Clark to become completely discouraged.

"Clark, I know from experience that the only way to stop a monster like Lex is to kill him, and you are not capable of taking another humans life in cold blood. On some level, Lex knew that you still had a soft spot in your heart for him and that you desperately wanted to believe that there was some good left in him. He used your kindness as a weapon against you. You cannot blame yourself," she tried.

Clark stared at her, his handsome filled with anguished and despair.

"Maybe I am better off powerless, Ororo. I put the world in jeopardy far too many times and maybe it's better for everyone involved if I was just...," he trailed off softly.

"Normal? Clark, you were never destined for a normal life. You were sent here because this world needed a savior; someone to protect us and that's you,I will not accept that this is a lost cause, and neithier should you. One way or another, we _will _find a way to get your abilities back, Clark. You may be discouraged now, but deep down you know that the world needs you," Ororo promised firmly, before turning to lead them out of the room.

Ororo and Clark both reached for the door knob at the same time and their hands rested together lightly.

Thier eyes met and Ororo looked away blushing, something that didn't go unnoticed by Oliver who suddenly began to suspect something was going on between the two. Clark knew that the touching of their hands together was completely accidental, but feeling his fingertips against hers made something inside of him shiver slightly. Starring down into Ororo's gorgeous face, he was startled to find that he had missed her more then he had realized. Ororo felt her breath catch in her thoat as her heart began to race slightly faster. Their eyes met and she found herself feeling tons of conflicting emotions; some emotions that were way too intense for her to acknowledge. Clearing her throat she smiled shyly before leading the two men out of the room.

As they walked out of the loft towards the Danger Room, they weren't aware of Anna lurking in the shadows watching them closely. She knew people would have to be completely blind or oblivious not to notice the tension between the weather witch and boy wonder. She noticed how Clark watched Ororo intently as he followed her down the hall. To say that the handsome inter galactic alien had some unfinished business with the wind rider was definitely a major understatement. While Anna genuinely liked Ororo, she couldn't help but see a window of opportunity being opened right in front of her. If she could somehow get close to Clark and convince him to act on his feelings towards Ororo, then she would have no problem convincing Remy that they belong together and everything would be returned back to its natural order of things. She didn't feel like she was being conniving and deceptive in her ways. She just felt that she was doing Ororo a favor. After all Ororo deserved to be with a man who was more her caliber and let Remy finally be with the woman whom he was truly meant for and Anna would make sure that would happen at all cost....

**********


	8. Chapter 8

Tess Mercer sat in Lex Luthor's office staring intently at her computer screen waiting for the live video of the siege on the school to be uploaded onto her computer. She wanted to make sure everything went off without a hitch which was why she was making the agent in charge broadcast the invasion secretly from a very highly developed surveillance camera in planted in the contacts that he was wearing so that way she could see everything that was going on. She had learned very early in life that if you want something done and can't do it yourself, keep a sharp eye on the person who you trust to do it for you.

Suddenly a masculine voice came cackling through the static filled radio clutched in Tess's hand.

"We are outside the estate Ms. Mercer. Give us the word and we will execute the mission to infiltrate the facilities and capture the Green Arrow."

Tess smiled victoriously as the video of the agents and the captured and mind controlled vigilante's lurking in the dark woods outside the school came across the screen.

"That's excellent news, Agent Fields. Descend on to the school at your own discretion and brief me on the situation once The Green Arrow is secured. Remember, I want him in a condition where he is alive and can speak," she ordered while casually petting the Siberian cat that was slumbering lazily on top of her lap.

Usually Tess hated any form of animal, but the cat had been a present from the city mayor congratulating her on her new position as the Chief Editor of the Daily Planet. She knew it wouldn't look very good to t he press if she immediately got rid of the expensive fur bag, so she kept it around and was surprised to find that the little beast wasnt' such bad company to have around as she had originally believed it would be.

"You look like a Missy...what do you think of Missy as a name?" she cooed down at the cat.

A long awkward silence came across the radio.

"Ma'am you are complete liberty to call me whatever you want," a dead panned voice came over the radio.

Tess rolled her eyes as she scratched the white cat gently behind the ears.

"Not you, Agent Fields. I was talking to my....cat...," she trailed off feeling even more foolish after uttering that statement.

"Ok.... Anyways, from the way things look from the ground, the school appears to be very quiet and everything looks normal. It is my gut instinct that they do not know we are coming and getting in and out of the school with low casualties should be a walk in the park," he reported.

"Make it happen, agent. I do not need to tell you exactly how crucial it is that we get our hands on the elusive Green Arrow. He may be the last clue that may tell us where exactly Lex Luthor is residing," she started.

"No ma'am. You don't. You have made that point very clear."

As she waited for her plan to go into motion, she lounged back into her comfortable expensive brown leather chair and began to ponder her life silently. Ever since she was a young girl, Tess Mercer's main goal and purpose in life was to be the type of powerful woman that struck fear and respect into the hearts of men. She had fought hard to earn her place in society using her grace and brains instead of her stunning beauty which would have been an wiser tool to use if she had been a woman without pride or integrity. Growing up, she had to watch her mother who had been an intelligent and gorgeous woman who unhappily lead a submissive lifestyle to her father and Tess made herself a vow that she would never allow a man to have any kind of power over her, yet here she was breaking that vow by looking for Lex Luthor as if her life depended on whether or not she found him alive. She sighed heavily and looked out the window dully with her mind and thoughts being pulled in all different kinds of directions. When had her life veered off the path from dominating control in her career life and strayed on to the highway of doing every thing in her power to please a Billionaire that she had no clue whether was alive or not?

She made a point to herself that once Lex was found that she would put distance in between her and the egomaniac bald man and focus more on dominating her own life and career. She heard all the rumors from Lex's staff about his eccentric past and she wasn't too intrested in being seduced in the Billionaire's world of global domination and obsession with the unknown and unexplained. Sitting back down in her chair she began to glance over the notes and the information agents had gathered about the school she was planning to invade. Suddenly something came across the screen that made her sit up straight in her chair.

"Wait. Agent Fields, focus back on that room you just scanned," she said hastily.

The agent obeyed and locked his focus back onto the kitchen where Tess focused the camera in closely so she could confirm what she had thought she had saw. A dark smile spread across her pretty features as she glared intently at the woman on her computer screen.

"Well, well what do we have here? Ten years after you leave the Hellfire Club this is where you end up at? It's a small world after all," Tess murmured starring down at the video image that had caught her attention like a hungry cat would stared down at a helpless mouse.

Sasha, the cat, sensed the dark internal brooding of it's owner and with a soft hiss, she jumped off of Tess's lap and made her way across the room into a dark corner. Tess barely noticed her pets strange behavior as she walked over to where she had a small mini bar waiting adjacent to the desk. Tess plucked three ice cubs into her glass before pouring her self a glass of top shelf Vodka on the rocks.

The video image of the woman she had been starring at bought back bitter memories to Tess. A long time ago when she was a younger woman, her powerful last name "Mercer" had bought her an invite into the most exclusive club in New York led by a tycoon by the name of Sebastian Shaw. The time she had spent there had quickly doubled her wealth and notoriety. For some unfortunate reason, she had become the White King, the leader, Edward Buckman secret lover in hopes of quickly moving up the rank while sleeping with Sebastian on the side. Her falling from grace had come when a woman with ash blond hair by the name of Emma Frost came into the fold under the occupation as a dancer. Emma quickly exposed a plot Edward had been concocting to build Sentinels to hunt and kill what he called "genetic deviants" and what the rest of the world called mutants. Once this fact became known, the Inner Circle that once included Tess, shunned her and was quickly dominated by mutants. When Sebastian became the replacement for White King, ,Tess had sat by hopeful that he would deem her the worthy and most coveted title of White Queen. When she found out that Sebastian bestowed Emma with the the title, she had become righteously enraged. Humiliated, Tess had dropped out of the high rollers club and left the Upper East side of New York and made her way down to Kansas to work for Lex determined to make an even bigger name for herself by aliening with the Luthors who were estranged enemies of the Hellfire Club.

"Everyone is in place, Ms. Mercer. Are you ready to give the order to proceed?" Agent fields asked, requesting permission to make make the mission official.

Tess was more then ready to give the order. Grabbing The Green Arrow had originally been her goal, but she knew if she could take out Emma Frost, one of Lex's more formidable and powerful financial rivals, not only would she firmly be in the good gracious of Lex Luthor, but she would also establish once and for all that she was a woman not to be messed with. Flipping her hair over her shoulder she smiled deviously and brought the radio close to her glossy lips.

"Proceed."

**Back at the mansion....**

Ororo, Clark, and Oliver finally arrived on the basement level of the mansion and came to a stop in front of a steel, huge vault like door. Ororo swiftly entered the password and the doors leading into the observation part of the Danger Room hissed open. Once inside, Ororo found the resident's native Canadian wearing his usual permanent scowl along with his casual red and black shirt, starring through the glass down at some training taking place in the room below and snapping orders through a tiny microphone. Glancing down into the training room, she could see that the junior members of the xmen team was running training exercises against Sentinels with Scott.

Hearing their entrance, Logan stopped talking and looked up frowning as his eyes rested on Clark and Oliver. He sniffed the air briefly before narrowing his eyes as the native Kryptonian. Society might have found Logan's actions a bit strange and borderline crazy, but Ororo had grown to become accustomed to Logan's little quirks that came with his abilities. By sniffing the air Logan had been measuring both men up by using his sense of smell.

"I thought I smelled a pair of boy scouts from a mile away," Logan smirked folding his arms across his chest.

Ororo glared a hole through her feral friend. She knew he was doing this purposely to embarrass her.

"Logan, be polite," she scolded.

Logan rolled his eyes amused and satisfied that he had managed to get under the weather witch's skin. That was one thing that truly bought him pleasure was being able to watch as he unraveled Ororo from being cool, calm and unemotional into this angry passionate woman. Some may call it mild case of flirtation, but Logan saw it as making Ororo realize that she wasn't as emotionless as she thought she was.

Clark and Oliver exchanged an amused smile before they walked passed Logan and looked through the plexi glass to see several young kids and adults dressed in black leather with an small gold "x" embedded on the uniform undergoing some sort of exercise that involved what looked to be giant evil robots shooting high beamed lasers through their eyes.

A blond man standing near one of the robots raised his hands towards the robot and sent layers of thick ice flying towards the giant robot. The ice covered the machine, momentarily stopping the giant piece of machine from advancing any further onto the uniform clad people. Logan uttered a low growl of annoyance.

"Amateur move, Drake. I want to see more skills and less show boatin'," Logan barked into the intercom.

Drake looked up to respond to Logan's criticism when a robot aimed it's arm in the Iceman's direction preparing to shoot out a laser beam. Before the robot could fire on to the unsuspecting mutant,an attractive brunette woman phased through the one of the legs of one of the machine causing it to short circuit and fall face first at her feet. Logan grinned proudly.

"Great move, Pryde. Drake, learn to pay attention or next time you will end up dead."

A few minutes later and a couple more of explosions and loud machine's collapsing into tiny pieces the mission finally came to an end. Logan cleared the scenario from the room turning it from a chaotic fiery battle scene back to the drab spacious metallic room that it originally it was. Several of the members of the team were either squatting or laying stretched out on the floor trying to catch their breath after the rough and aggressive exercise.

"Alright, not bad runts, but several of you are slacking off," he started evenly.

Clark and Oliver noticed several of the people in the room below shift nervously. Apparently most or all of the people starring up at Logan feared or respected him.

"Drake you need to work on your focus, and Scott you need to work on your accuracy and agility. I noticed you were dragging ass near the ending seconds of the mission."

Scott laughed in disbelief.

"Your crazy Logan. My hits were always accurate. I never miss," Scott retorted.

Logan grinned deviously.

"Yeah, I would believe that if it wasn't coming from someone who has one eye," he sneered.

As they argued Oliver turned to Ororo amazed.

"I need to look into getting one of these. It's totally bad ass, and it wouldn't hurt if Bart and the others knew how to rely on other means of defense rather then depending on their abilities," Oliver murmured completely impressed.

Clark stared out at the training with a look of awe on his face. One girl was doing somersaults in the air with firecrackers dancing all around her, another girl had turned into a wolf and was chasing the man who had shot ice from his fingertips and to make things even stranger a furry blue beast was hanging upside down from the raptors reading what sounded like Shakespeare.

"Who are all these people?" he inquired intrigued.

Ororo smiled before turning to face Clark.

"Those people are my family, Clark. I want you to meet the xmen."

Before Clark could ask anymore questions, the blond Iceman who had got chewed out by Logan seconds earlier, walked into the observation room followed by several others.

"Did someone say meet the xmen, because I am the coolest xmen to meet," he announced with a comedic flare, drawing several laughs from his companions.

Logan merely frowned agitated, and Ororo sighed amused.

"Jimmy?" Clark and Oliver blurted surprised looking at the Iceman in disbelief and confusion.

Drake looked back at the two men equally confused.

"Uh...no, the name is Bobby, but everyone calls me Drake. Let me guess, you are a modern day Robin Hood and he's your trusty lackey," Bobby joked with a playful grin.

Ororo looked as if she wanted to strike Bobby down in the very spot in which he stood.

"Bobby, behave," she warned narrowing her beautiful blue eyes at the man.

Bobby groaned.

"Aw, don't be like that, O. I was just having a little fun, that's all," he said innocently.

Oliver shook his head in disbelief.

"Okay, either Jimmy developed but mutant powers and a memory loss collectively at the same time or....," Oliver trailed off.

"Jimmy has a twin," Clark exclaimed.

"Don't mind, Bobby. He's just have one of those commonly goofy faces. Hi, I'm Kitty Pryde," the phasing beauty said pleasantly.

Oliver smile grew bigger at the sight of Kitty.

"Kitty? It's really nice to meet you," he started.

Bobby cleared his throat nervously as a huge guy in metallic armor stepped forward.

"Yeah, and this would be Kitty's boyfriend, Peter," Drake said meekly.

Oliver's smile practically froze on his face as the metal faded back into Peter's skin and all that stood before him was a man who looked like he break anything moving in have.

Suddenly the lights in the mansion flickered off leaving everyone in complete darkness. For a few seconds no one could hear anything but the confused mumblings of some of the students. Immediately Scott Summers began to take charge.

"Kitty take one of the guys and go check the back up generator for power. Logan you watch one end of the hall and Piotr will watch the opposite end. Everyone else get ready to go on the defense. If someone broke into our home chances are they are looking to take us by surprise. Let's turn the tables," Scott instructed.

As several people scattered to form a protective perimeter around Clark, Oliver and the less experienced junior members of the team, Kitty grinned deviously and looked at Bobby who slowly began to back away from her with apprehension written all over his face.

"W-wait...let's talk about this, Pryde. You know how much I _hate _phasing through things," he stammered.

Kitty smiled prettily.

"I promise that it'll be way more fun this time," she said hastilly grabbing him by the hand.

"Ugh, I hate this part right her-," Bobby started but was cut of abruptly as Kitty grabbed him and phased them through a wall leading down towards the lowest level of the school.

Stepping forward, Ororo lifted her hand in front of her causing lighting to dance from finger tip to fingertip giving off a small but brilliant amount of light to guide the small group through the dark. Jubilee outstretched her hand out as well and let her multi color plasma energy dance around on her palm adding to the light Ororo was giving off. Logan's claws were extended, Piotr was already shielded, once again, in his protective metallic layer of skin, Bobby's breath was coming out icy which showed the iceman was fully charged up. Their combine display of power was nothing other then amazingly beautiful to Oliver. He could tell as the two women walked side by side lighting up the hall and the way the others followed protectively behind them that they all were completely in sync with one another. Like family.....

"Don't tell me your scared of the dark," Oliver teased lightly as he accidentally brushed up against Ororo when she stopped walking abruptly sandwiching her between himself and Clark..

Ororo laughed quietly.

"It's not the dark I fear. It is just that when ever I completely engulfed in darkness, I can't but help feel a bit classifiable," she admitted more to herself then to him.

Clark heard the soft fear in her voice and closed his eyes and inhaled quietly. She smelled so pretty, almost like a field of fresh flowers in the Spring. In the dark he could feel the heat of her body against his, and it took everything that he had not to reach out and touch her. His reasons for wanting to touch her was more out of comfort then it was out of sexual tension although the latter was a major contributing factor. It was driving him crazy that the times he found himself so close to her were the times he felt the most far away. He hadn't expected to ever see her again and now that he has he couldn't help but think that maybe their was a greater reason to why fate drove her to save his life in nearly the same exact manner he had saved her.

"Are you doing ok?" Clark asked gently as he stepped away from her so that he wasn't in her personal space.

Ororo shuddered as she heard the concern in his voice.

"I am fine," she said assured.

Suddenly two figures emerged from the walls letting the others know that Kitty and Bobby had returned.

"Please don't make me do that with her ever again," Bobby pleaded with his face aghast.

Logan rolled his eyes.

"Grow a pair, Drake. Kitty, what kind of Intel did you gather?" Logan asked.

The brunette leaned forward with an expression on her face that made it seem as if she was about to divulge a huge secret that was make for juicy gossip.

"There is totally like a small army of people down there. More then an handful of the intruders are armed while a few of the others aren't. It's, like, totally bizarre," Kitty reported in a hushed whisper.

A group of the younger members of the team starting whispering to each other nervously, speculating over who was behind the break in.

"Stop talkin'," Logan barked, and instantly everyone became silent so that Logan sensitive hearing could pick up on any movement being made by intruders.

The Green Arrow stood tensed with his bow in one hand and a the quiver of an arrow between the index in middle finger of his other hand, and Scott Sumer's right hand was hovering lightly over the side of his visor. If anyone were to come around that corner to attack then they were definitely in store for a rude awakening.

"Did you two happen to notice what direction that seemed intent on heading in?"Logan asked gruffly.

"Judging by the man firepower lurking around down there, I think it's safe to say that these people didn't come her for a pleasant chat with the dean of admission. They came here looking for a fight and it looks like any minute they are going to kick down a few doors and expect to take us by surprise," Bobby said uncharacteristically serious.

Logan released a low growl as a sadistic smile found it's away across his face.

"Well they are in luck, because if it's a fight they want...then that's just exactly what they are gonna get!"

**End Note: In real life the actor who played Bobby Drake in the xmen films is the identical twin brother of the actor who plays Jimmy Olsen off of Smallville and I decided to make the playful reference for those who already knew the fact, and I also added a similar interaction from the xmen three movie in this scene. wonder if anyone caught it =).**

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	9. Chapter 9

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**An: I made this chapter a bit longer to make up for the fact that it's taking me so long to update.... *makes my meanest Wolverine face***

Remy winced slightly as a blinding bright light beaming from a long white stick pierced his right eye. At the moment Hank was checking both of his pupils with a small flash light, with deep concentration etched across his face. The second that Anna had dropped Remy off to the infirmary, the doctor had been all over him like spice on Jambalaya rice.

"I do not see signs of any long term affects to your temporary run in with paralysis, but to be on the safe side you should come me see me every other day for two weeks so that way I could keep an out for any obsolete changes in your health," Hank advised seriously.

Remy blinked several times before the dark circles swimming in his vision cleared and he scowled unhappily as he hopped off the cold metal examination table. He shivered, feeling goosebumps flare up on his arms as he stepped under the vent where arctic like air was pouring through. As he moved to put his form fitting black shirt back over his taunt naked torso , he was reminded why he hated medical rooms. They always seemed to be the coldest places on the face of the planet, and always tended to smell funny.

"I must admit, Gambit, that I would be most curious to see what the man who manage to do such a thing to you looks like, Gambit. It is a well known fact you are not an easy man to overtake," Hank smiled as he began to put away his medical tools neatly.

Remy frowned, his mood darkening over the memory of his run in with The Green Arrow.

"Homme' jus' got lucky, dat's all, Hank. Don't go thinkin' dat Remy's lost his flare, mon ami, cuz he ain't," he grumbled.

The doctor laughed heartilyy. It was obvious that the thief was still a little sore from his run in with the non mutant vigilante.

"I would never be so bold, Gambit," Beast said amused, "All that I was simply stating was that with me being knowledgeable about your exemplary fighting skills and your remarkable stealth skills, I find that the fact that another thief had equal prowess to overtake you... most impressive."

Remy scoffed.

"Dat man ain't _dat _impressive. _Merde,_ he wears green tights fo' heavens sake," he smirked.

Hank gave him a disapproving look.

"Tsk, Remy. You are a man who startle people on a daily basis with your nontraditional colored eyes and I am a man most people believe should belong in a petting zoo. We should be not so quick to judge others on their unique physical appearances," Hank reminded sagely.

"Remy, sees yo point, but he still think that The Green Arrow is not'in mo' den a wannabe pri-," Gambit stopped talking abruptly. As he had been reaching to grab his trench coat draped over an empty chair, he had noticed a bunch of thick books stacked on the doctor's desk and the author of them all was Shakespeare.

Hank, Y' mind if I ask you somethin'? It's about me an' Stormy," he asked slowly as thumbed through one of the books labeled _Othello._

It had occurred to him that Hank was the perfect person to talk to about his feelings concerning his fiance. Remy ruled out talking to Scott because the Xmen's leader was skittish when it came to giving relationship advice, Piotr because the man was ridiculously innocent and naive about all matters of the heart and Logan would have just sneered and found someway to make Remy feel like a chump.

"It would be my pleasure to lend you my ear. What is on your mind, Remy? Would this little chat have anything to do with Clark's sudden presence among us?" he asked gently as he took a seat in the chair Remy's coat had been laid crossed.

The cajun swallowed deeply, combing his fingers through his long thick auburn hair before pacing back and forth almost agitated.

"Fo' de record, Remy ain't de type to be jealous but ever since Kent showed up here, she's been practically glued t' his side. De worse part is dat Remy's been getting a weird vibe from her. Almost like she ain't tellin' me somethin'. Before you say anything, Remy knows it absurd t' be concerned, but I saw the way they look at each other and I ain't jus' bein' paranoid. Remy ti'nk there is somethin' mo' t' the reason why Stormy is constantly at his side."

"Listen to me, my friend. It is perfectly natural for you to feel some sort of resentment and insecurity about the woman you love spending so much time in another man's company. Ororo is simply nursing a friend back to health and repaying a favor. She is in love with you Remy. Love is composed of one soul occupying two bodies. Whenever you are in doubt, trust in the love you two share and that should be enough to tame whatever wild fear that you may be having," Hank advised wisely.

A comfortable silence fell in between the two men as Hank jotted something on a clipboard.

"Y' are right, mon ami. Remy is jus' bein' irrational. Remy jus' scared of...losin' her," he said quietly.

Remy hated the intense feelings of insecurity coursing through his mind. He hated that he was doubtful about Stormy seeing how she had always been the one he could believe in no matter what. He clenched his fist feeling frustrated. The sooner Clark Kent was out of their lives, the better.

Before Hank could respond, the electricity in the lab shut off with warning. The computer and the machines powered down drawing an frusterated growl from Hank.

"There goes all the blood test and formula's I was previously running. This is going to put me behind for at the very least a couple of days," he sighed heavily.

Remy shook his head sympathetically.

"T'ink Summers fo'got t' pay de electric bill again?" Remy asked amused.

It was a commonly known fact throughout the mansion that Scott Summers ruled with a clenched fist when it came to leading the xmen, but when it came to the more domestic side of up keeping the estate, Summers tended not to be as focused and as consistent.

"That would be my first guess,"Hank chuckled softly as he stumbled clumsily through the dark trying to find his way back to his desk where he kept an emergency flashlight. Suddenly there was the sound of bone meeting metal and a loud howl erupted from the doctor causing Remy to cringed internally causing the light hairs on the back of his neck to stand up straight.

"Y' ok, mon ami?" Remy inquired cautiously.

There was the sounds of low moans before an answer emerged from the meek and friendly furry blue mutant.

"I am fine, Remy, but I am afraid my shin is not. The pain is very excruciating," Hank groaned.

Remy smirked before taking his index and middle finger into his jacket pocket and pulling out a card. With a simple thought he set the card to fire slowly in a haunting Gothic pink glow. The Cajun admired his work briefly before taking the steps forward to find his injured comrade. He walked over to where Hank's desk was located and found the doctor sitting against the wall clutching his wounded ankle. As Remy went to help his fellow xmen off of the ground, he saw shadows of several people move into the room. Within seconds several guns were trained on him and Hank.

"Remy's startin' t' ink he should gave Summers the benefit of the doubt," Remy smirked as the intruders surrounded them slowly.

"We are searching for a man by the name of The Green Arrow. One of you will take us there. The voice belonged to a woman who had cropped blond hair and was dressed in all black.

"Who are you?" Remy demanded.

"I'm the Black Canary."

Hank let out a low growl.

"We will most certainly not help you with any plan you have to harm this Green Arrow. If the Green Arrow is a friend of Ororo, he is among friends who will protect him," Hank warned.

Suddenly a red and flash blur tore through the room causing papers to sweep around in the air in a whirlwind. The blur charged towards Hank and sent the doctor slamming violently into the back wall rending him unconcious from the impact. The blur returned to the side of Black Canary wearing a self satisfied smirk.

"Learn from your friend's mistake and do as the lady ask. I do hate to play rough," he said smugly.

The Cajun scoffed unimpressed.

"Remy would like to see y' try dat lil amateur trick on him, _kid," _he taunted.

Bart's face darkened in anger.

"I'll show you kid, asshole," he growled taking a threatening step towards the other man.

Dinah held him back sternly glaring at him agitated.

"Don't. We need one of them conscious," she warned before turning back to where Remy was glowering in her direction.

"Listen, If you don't help me find what we are looking for, I promise you that the next thing your friend will feel is the cold touch of death. Do as we say and you both might make it out of this alive," Dinah said coolly.

The Cajun tensed as he quickly glanced down where Hank was still motionless. As much as he wanted to resist the intruders he knew that he couldn't, in good conscience, do anything to risk the life of his friend. Reluctantly, Remy dropped the Bo staff and deck of cards and held his hands up in a sign of submission. Against Xmen protocol, he decided he would lead them to the Green Arrow, but Remy was confident by the time he drew them all away from the defenseless doctor that he would be able to take them out swiftly.

"If y' will follow me, Remy will take you to who y' are lookin' fo'," he said evenly.

Dinah smiled amused.

"Not so fast, pretty boy. Grab him," Dinah ordered as she pulled out a syringe.

Bart and Stone obeyed and no matter how hard Remy struggled, there was no use. Even if he did manage to get away from the bionic man, Bart would have just caught him seconds later.

"What's dat?"

"Something to make sure that you go through with your part of the deal. "

Remy felt his heart plummet in his stomach as all the blood drained out of his face. The last time someone had tried to control him, he had ended up doing evil and unforgivable things.

No offense, but our boss has little patience for any double crossing," she murmured before injecting the serum into the side of the livid cursing Cajun's neck. Seconds later, the cursing died down and in it's place was stoic silence.

"Now that we have your full and insured cooperation, you will lead us to where The Green Arrow is and if anyone stands in your way...kill them," the agent ordered coldly.

Remy's eyes seemed to glow a bit brighter in the dark as a sinister smile stretched across his lips.

"Oui."


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I appreciate all the reviews and thanks for bearing with me. I just got my mojo back if some of you couldn't tell lol....**

Agent Fields crept through the dark halls of the mansion with his weapon gripped tightly in his hand and a small flashlight in the other. His other team had descended onto the basement which consisted of the training room and the medical office that had been mapped out on the blue prints they had studied minutes earlier. Meanwhile, he and his squad of four armed men were in charge of scanning the rest of the mansion for any trace of The Green Arrow.

Suddenly Agent Fields shivered slightly. Was it his imagination or was the atmosphere suddenly becoming freezing cold? As he peered further down the hall, he was puzzled to see what appeared to be ice creeping up on the walls and began to covering the ceiling. He shivered once more as he realized some crazy meteor freak might possibly be waiting around the corner and he was definitely not looking forward to that. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The sooner that they completed this mission and got the hell out of there, the better. The place was definitely giving him the creeps.

Grabbing his walkie he attempted to contact the other team that consisted of Flash, the bionic man and the black canary and one agent.

_"...Black Canary, this is Agent Fields. Have you managed to come in contact with our target the Green Arrow?"_

There was a long pause on the other side of the walkie talkie before the woman's voice came through loud and clear.

_"...No, but we do have one of the residents under our command who will take us to him."_

Suddenly a jolt of electricity emerged from the dark striking the walkie talkie causing Agent fields to drop the device startled.

"I hear that you are looking for the Green Arrow," a deep distorted voice came from the darkness of the hall in front of him.

Agent Fields hastily grabbed his gun from the holster on his hip. and aimed in the direction of where the voice had come from. His hand trembled slightly as he tightened his hold on the pistol grip.

"Who's there? Show yourself?" he demanded his voice filled with authority despite the fact that he was a little frightened.

For a moment everything was silent. Suddenly a flash of light lit up the hall and Agent Fields spotted a short but burly man standing in the middle of the hall with metal claws extended from his knuckles and a murderous look on his face.

"Arrrgh!"

The agent winced at the sound of the animistic battle cry that could be heard echoing through out the walls of the mansion. Suddenly, the man lunged at him and seconds later he was rammed head first into a nearby wall. All Agent Fields could recall was feeling intense amounts of pain just before everything went black.

"I'm willing to bet that you are wishing that you never found me, huh?" the Green Arrow smirked as he looked down at the unconscious agent with amusement.

From that moment on the place erupted into pure chaos. The only light that could be seen were the brief flashes of orange, from where Logan's claws met the metal barrels of guns and a distandce down where Jubilee was throwing short burst of her energy plasma fireworks. Screams of agony tore through the air as Logan, Scott and several of the other xmen defended themselves against the intruders.

"Ahh! Put me down you creep!"

Clark looked up from where he was crouched down to see a solider had grabbed Jubilee and was handling the teenage girl roughly.

Not thinking, Clark rushed forward and grabbed the armed man slamming him into the wall before his fist came crashing down on the soldiers jaw causing the man to drop like a sack of bricks. His arm going tangled up in the man's limp limbs and they both went sprawling down the stairs unceremoniously. Clark laid moaning as his hands wrapped around his midsection giving testimony to injured ribs. Suddenly the Asian girl was towering over him wide eyed.

"My knight and shining steel! Are you ok?" Jubilee asked worried as she moved to help him up.

Clark attempted to smile at her humor, but instead grimaced as he felt sharp pain dance up the left side of his body. He could barely breathe as the pain continue to wash over him making him lightheaded.

While she was tending to the injured farm boy, Jubilee didn't notice someone creeping up behind her.

"J-jubilee, b-behind you," Clark managed to gasp through his pain trying to give the young woman a warning that she was in danger.

Jubilee whirled around and gulped loudly as she saw a gun being leveled at her chest.

At that same moment, Storm saw the danger that young Jubilation Lee was in and she sprang into action immediately. If there was one thing that Ororo hated more then anything, it was guns. She never really saw the purpose for such a dangerous and unforgiving weapon that wielded instant death whenever used. Ororo eyes whited over and violent winds brewing up outside of the house could be heard slamming angrily against the windows, demanding to come to the aide of it's mistress. Suddenly the windows snapped open and the sudden and violent force of wind caused several soldiers including the one currently holding Jubilee at gun point to stumble off balance.

"So one grabbed that freak weather bitch," one of the soilders ordered annoyed.

"We really did not sign up for this," another cried angrily and more then a little terrified as he stared at all the mutants ready to attack them once more, "If Tess want this Arrow guy bad enough, let _her _come here and get him herself."

Several of the soldiers stared at each other silently wondering if thier comrade had a point and whether they should just make the collective decision and abort the mission themselves. However one of the soldiers wasn't too fond of the idea of surrender and decided to take advantage of everyone being distracted so that he could catch one of the mutants off guard.

"Fine. If none of you want to rid of the bitch, I'll do it my damn self," he growled.

Logan watched in horror as a man lifted his gun and aimed it in Ororo's direction. Not taking another moment to think, he rushed forward and propelled his body weight into the soildier causing the man to drop the gun and stumble off balanced. The gun clattered loudly down the hall in the dark where he kicked out of sight before slowly advancing on the fallen solider with murder in his eyes.

"You are going to live to regret doing that, bub," Logan said before grinnining sinisterly, "Or maybe not."

The man's face grew white as a sheet.

"D-don't hurt me man. I didn't want to want to break in and assault anybody, I swear. I'm just here following orders," he stammered fearfully.

Logan narrowed his eyes evenly.

"Too bad, pal," he snarled lifting his fist to knock the man out.

"Logan," Ororo called out to the feral man with her voice low with warning.

His fist froze in mid air, and Wolverine smiled darkly showing his perfectly straight, pearly, white teeth.

"I ain't gonna hurt him too much, Ro. I am just gonna rearrange his face unless he tells me all that he knows," he promised darkly.

Bobby and Scott snickered at Logan's quip while Ororo just rolled her eyes both amused and exasperated.

"If I were you, I would start speaking now," Ororo advised the terrified solider gently.

Apparently the soilder saw the wisdom in Ororo's warning and he began to spill his guts.

"I am apart of a mercenary team from Kansas sent here by a woman by the name of Tess Mercer to retrieve the Green Arrow. She says that finding him was of the utmost importance and that she would not except failure. You have to understand that I have a family to provide her. I needed the money," he protested pathetically.

Clark who had just been helped back up the stairs by Jubilee interrupted.

"That still doesn't make it right. I don't know what kind of power this Tess Mercer has over you, but you are your own person and you have to accept consequences for your own actions," Clark manage to say as he wheezed for air.

"Save the boy scout speech for later, Kent. I personally know the woman who is currently hunting me," Oliver said wryly before turning to the solider presently being interrogated, "What does Tess Mercer want with me?"

"She believes you are the last chance she has of finding Lex Luthor, and she won't let anything or anyone stand in the way of finding him," he warned shaking.

Ororo narrowed her eyes angrily. She should have known that Luthor was behind this mess. She was really beginning to wonder if Lex would really be better off dead instead of being allowed to torment and torture innocent people.

"Here's the deal, creeps. You can leave with all your limbs attached and tell Tess you were unlucky in your mission or you can leave on a gurney or worse. What's it going to be?" The Green Arrow growled angrily as he aimed his bow at the chest. Beside the leather green clad vigilante, Logan raised his claws up menacingly and released a low and deadly growl.

It took the soilders several seconds to flee the hall whimpering in fear.

"They are retreating!" Kitty announced happily causing a loud cheer to rise among the junior members.

Logan brushed his blood stained claws against the pants leg of his jeans before retracting them once more back beneath his flesh which healed within seconds.

"They managed to put up a half decent fight before submitting to cowardice," he smirked.

"Logan take the junior team to see if there is anyone else lingering on the property. I am going to go find and check and make sure the rest of the students and the faculty are accounted for," Scott directed going into leadership mode.

Logan and the others went to carry out the command leaving Scott, The Green Arrow, Anna, Clark and Ororo standing in the hall.

The Green Arrow quickly spoke up.

"Do you have any tools where I can fix my communication ear piece. I think it was damage during the fight," Oliver frowned as he stared down at the nearly shattered ear piece lying in the flat of the palm of his hand.

Ororo opened her mouth to speak when Anna cut her off.

"Yeah, Ah can take you there. Our shop for all things technical are filled with everything y' should need, sugah. Ah will have that radio of yours fixed in no time," Anna promised with a warm smile before leading Green Arrow off down the hall.

Ororo watched Anna's retreating figure with a puzzled smile. Lately Anna had been aloof and brooding, but tonight it had seemed she had suddenly come back to life. It was hard to explain but it was almost like the brunette was been driven by something. Ororo realized she was too worn out to ponder the reason behind the southern belle's abrupt and mysterious change of behavior and she let it quickly fade from her mind.

"I am just glad that the danger has passed," Ororo sighed with a weary smile as she leaned against the wall with her palm pressed against her forehead.

Clark couldn't help but how tired and exhausted she looked. At any minute it seemed that her eyes would shut and she would fall over. It amazed Clark at how a woman who commanded the powerful elements at her fingertips could manage to look so frail and delicate. He watched as she stifled a yawn while rubbing her eyes. He wished that he could gently lift her off her feet and carry her to the most comfortable resting place that exist so she could rest peacefully.

Suddenly a loud shriek tore through the air causing everyone to cry out in pain while covering their ears. Ororo and the others could only watch helplessly as a woman dressed in all black with short blonde hair led several men into the hall. As the woman continued her ear piercing shriek, several of the windows in the mansion began to shatter. Scott rushed forward and grabbed Kitty and Jubilee and pulled them under a small table to shelter them from the sharp raining of glass. Clark grabbed Ororo and pulled her down to the floor where he protected her with his body. Ororo closed her eyes and pressed her face into Clark's shoulder blade as she pressed her hands against her ears.

Almost as suddenly as the screaming started, it came to a halt.

"Are you ok?" he asked softly as he brushed some shards of glass out of her hair.

Ororo opened her mouth to speak, but was at a loss of words. Clark's body was pressed on top of hers tightly and his face was inches from hers. She could feel his warm soft breath grazing her skin and she could see a blush color his cheeks as his gaze lingered from her eyes, to her lips. Suddenly Ororo felt knots in her stomach as she realized that a small part of her wanted him to kiss her. She didn't know whether it was because of his closeness or the emotions swirling around inside of her but she was beginning to grow light headed. She licked her lips nervously.

"Thank you for pulling me out of harm's way," she whispered with a quick smile.

This time Clark started to speak, but words failed him as well.

"Ororo...I," he faltered, but he was interrupted by woman intruder.

"Sorry for the rather loud entrance, but I wanted to make sure I had your attention," the woman smirked folding her arms across her chest.

Clark rolled off top of Ororo and helped her to feet while Scott, Jubilee, and Kitty came from beneath the table. Ororo's eyes widened with surprise as she spotted Remy near the group silently.

"Oh, Remy! I am very pleased that you alright, I thought," the wind rider started walking towards the cajun when Clark grabbed her hand causing her to stop. Confused, Ororo looked up at Clark and was surprised to find suspicion and apprehension in his deep blue eyes.

"Something is wrong here," Clark warned softly causing the windrider to stop walking confused.

Remy smirked coldly in response as he stared the other man down. As Clark gently guided Ororo behind him protectively, she could see that Remy had a look on his face that was all too familiar. He was preparing to attack them. Ororo felt tears well up in her throat as she stared over at her fiance who was starring back at her almost as if she was a stranger. What could have happened to him that would make him this way?

"If anyone would know where the Green Arrow is hidin' out, it would be Clark Kent," a young guy wearing red and yellow informed.

The Cajun walked forward until he was standing toe to toe with Clark. He glared darkly at Clark before he smiled charmingly.

"Remy don't want t' hurt y' so let's make dis as painless as possible, non?" Remy asked calmly as he toyed with a couple of playing cards in his left hand which was near his pocket.

"Remy, for Goddess sake, don't do this," Ororo cried angrily as she moved to rush to Clark's side.

Suddenly Remy's hand flew out and count Ororo by her forearm holding her firmly in place. Their eyes met and both pairs were filled with anger and hostility. Ororo tried to pull away from him and was furious when Remy did not release her.

"Don't stand in my way, petite. Don't interfere," he said coldly.

"You will _not _keep me from aiding my friend. This is the last time I will say this. Let...me...go," she growled as her eyes began to white over in anger.

"You heard what she said. Let her go, Remy," Clark growled as he moved forward to aid the wind rider.

Stone rushed foward and grabbed Clark holding him back firmly.

"You tell us where to find that flammin' arrow shootin' friend of y's and he jus' might let y' live. Remy t'inks what he is askin' is fairly reasonable," he said patiently.

"Do what you want to do to me, but I won't let you hurt my friend, and I won't let you hurt Ororo," Clark growled stubbornly.

Remy laughed.

"How noble, but Remy has quite frankly grown tired of this back and forth when we both know dat dis is goin' no where. Remy asked nicely before, but now he ain't feelin' so pleasant," he said evenly.

The cajun made a sudden motion with his hands and suddenly an agent standing to the side stepped forward and shot Dinah and Bart with an injection gun causing both vigilante's to fall to the ground unconscious. Clark felt his heart leap into his throat as he stared down at his friend's lying motionless on the ground.

"What did you do to them?" Clark demanded seething.

"Don't worry, mon ami. They are jus' unconscious. There is no longer any use fo' them," he said simply.

Ororo cried out in fear.

"I beg you, my love. Do not hurt these innocent people, Remy. Listen to reason," Ororo pleaded struggling against Stone desperately.

Remy seemed to look as if he was struggling internally with what to do and Ororo felt a sliver of hope beginning to rise inside of her. However, as quickly as that hope came, it faded when Remy lifted his head and glowered in Clark's direction.

"Enough of this. Y' refuse t' tell me what Remy needs which means dat he has no more use fo' y' either. Here, fo' your loyalty t' yo' friends," Remy smiled coldly at Clark, "Y' are most definetly...a one of a kind, homme'."

Ororo watched paralyzed in what seem to be a horrible nightmare playing out like a scene before her tear filled blue eyes. A silent scream was stuck in her throat as she stood frozen in her place as her fiance, the man she loved, toss a playing card in Dinah and Bart's direction. Before she could move to do anything about the impending explosion, Clark raced past her towards the card.

"Clark...no," Ororo screamed trying to run to him, but it was too late.

Clark grabbed the card and rushed towards the nearest window. He knew that if he didn't do something quickly, Ororo and all the others that standing around would get hurt and he couldn't let that happen. Even though he knew that he was powerless and he could potentially die, he couldn't deny the urge to be the savior as he knew he was destined to be. As the glass shattered into a million little pieces, he felt the blast before he actually heard it. Heat engulfed his entire body like a wild fire and he couldn't help but to cry out in pain as he plummeted towards the ground with wind whipping around his face and intense heat searing his flesh. The last thing he saw before everything black was the green grass below rushing towards him at a frightening speed. Then there was nothing.

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	11. Chapter 11

**An: This is kinda two chapters stuffed into one so enjoy!**

**Meanwhile in Montana....**

"Um, Lois? Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Jimmy whispered fearfully as he peered through a pair of binoculars into an warehouse surrounded by armed men. "There are guys in there...with guns."

His companion, Lois Lane, sighed annoyed for what seem to be the hundredth time that minute as she took the binoculars from the photographer's trembling hands and stared at him impatiently. It was nearing dawn and while she should have been in her comfortable queen size bed sleeping peacefully, she was instead peering througha pair of binoculars watching intently as several armed guards patrolled outside of the building. Two days ago when she had found out from Jimmy that Chloe had been arrested by some highly secret government security organization, she had thought that the goofy photographer had been pulling her leg by trying to make her the victim of a highly unbelievable and ridiculous joke. When she had finally realized that he was utterly serious, she had immediately snapped into action calling contacts with ties to her father to find out as much as possible. When she had gotten news that the people that had taken Chloe had some secret base in Montana connected to Lex's company, Lois had put two and two together and grabbed Jimmy and they had taken the first flight out of Kansas.

"Listen here, Olsen. I _did not _spend the past 48 hours searching for my cousin only to walk away from rescuing her just because their is a few wimpy guards with guns," she said firmly before creeping closer towards the building.

Jimmy blushed deeply as he followed closely behind her.

"I didn't say I didn't want to go in there and save Chloe. Just remind me why we couldn't call the authorities again?" Jimmy asked nervously as they crept through a window left opened on an unguarded side of the building.

Lois rolled her eyes exasperated.

"Because the authorities would have needed proof that Chloe was being held here and all the evidence we had wouldn't have been concrete enough for them. We had no other choice but to come alone," she explained patiently as she pulled Jimmy down behind a box of crates and kept an watchful eye out on the currently empty hallway.

"So what's the plan? We just stop the next guard and nicely ask them where they are keeping Chloe?" Jimmy whispered incredulously.

Almost as if on cue, a guard humming softly to himself rounded the corner causing a devious smile to spread across Lois's lips.

"Watch and learn, Jimmy," she murmured, "Watch and learn."

Before Jimmy could reply, the feisty brunette sprang out of hiding into the direct path of the guard who stopped walking abruptly.

"Who the hell are you? No one is allowed in here. This is private property," he started.

Lois shrugged and smiled prettily.

"I'll leave just as soon as you give me the information I'm looking for," she said simply.

The man scoffed in disbelief and was starting to reach for his walkie talkie when Lois swiftly kicked it out of his hand and using her in depth fighting skills she had accumulated over the years, put the solider on his back roughly.

"Tell me where you are holding Chloe Sullivan," Lois demanded jamming the heel of her boot in the man's gut causing him to groan in pain.

"Get the hell off of me you crazy bitch. I ain't tellin' you shit," he snarled red faced from pain and anger.

Jimmy cringed. Even though he heard people call Lois similar names behind her back, he had never seen anyone brave enough to say it to her face and he was slightly fearful of how the brunette was preparing to react.

Lois smiled darkly before grabbing his taser gun from it's holster. Without any warning she jammed the muzzle into the man's thigh before moving away a safe distance and tasing him at half power. The guard screamed and withered in pain as bolts of electricity surged through his entire body. Seconds later, Lois released her finger from the trigger and exhaled deeply with her pretty eyes practically narrowed into tiny little slits.

Jimmy gulped.

_"Reminder to self...never piss Lois off," _Jimmy thought to himself as he watched wide eyed.

"This is your last chance, creep, now spill. Where the hell is my cousin?" Lois asked coldly.

*****Minutes later*****

Chloe was sitting alone in her prison feeling a sense of hopelessness overcome her when the door to her dreary cell suddenly opened. She was expecting her captor to come through the door but she was completely stunned to see Lois and Jimmy rush across the threshold towards her with relieved and happy expressions on their faces. After they unbound her from the chair she had been trapped in for the past several hours, she leaped up and embrace her cousin and her boyfriend simultaneously.

"Not that I'm not grateful from this unexpected and impromptu rescue, but what are you two doing here?" Chloe exclaimed before pulling away from their embrace and staring at them in a mixture of confusion and concern.

Before Lois had the chance, Jimmy quickly filled Chloe in on what had happened.

"I tried to find Clark, but it's like C.K. practically fell of the face of the planet. I couldn't find him anywhere," he informed.

Lois snorted rudely.

"That's Smallville for you. When you don't want him around he's by your side like a lost puppy and when you _do _need him, he is nowhere to be found," she sighed crossing her arms over her chest.

Suddenly there was the sound of an alarm going off and Lois cursed annoyed.

"Damn, they know that we are here. If any of us ever have hopes of living, we need to get out of here and fast," she said hastily.

Jimmy grabbed Chloe's hand in his and the trio were making their way towards the door leading out of the cell when a group of men walked in dressed in all black holding large guns with camouflage painting on their faces. Lois quickly stood protectively in front of Chloe and Jimmy.

"Stay right there, or I will make sure your days of reproducing comes to a very painful and swift end," Lois warned aiming the the taser gun at the closest soldier's crotch.

The man lowered his weapon arching his thing blond eyebrow curiously.

"You must be Lois Lane," he said wryly.

Lois bristled.

"Let me guess. You recognize me as the re known reporter for the Daily Planet," she said with a pleased and arrogant smile.

The solider shook his head.

"Actually we were sent here to keep you out of harm's way by the General...your father," he informed.

Chloe and Jimmy exchanged an startled look while Lois shook her head amused.

"Well what do you know? The General comes through after all even though _I _manage to take care of everything myself," Lois said with a wry smile.

The solider nodded.

"We need to get moving Ms. Lane. This black ops mission wasn't sanction by the government so we need to disappear to avoid having to answer any complicated questions involving our presence here," the solider warned seriously.

Lois nodded firmly and quickly followed the squad of soldiers out of the cell with Chloe and Jimmy huddled close behind her. After running into several guards of the opposition, the group finally made their way out of the warehouse and started running towards a helicopter waiting a few yards away.

"How did you get the chopper so close without being heard?" Lois asked loudly over the running engine as they made their way through a chain linked fence.

"We were dropped off several miles from here," Sgt. Skylar informed.

As the trio climbed and strapped themselves in safely in the back of one of the helicopters, Lois leaned over and embraced her cousin feeling tears of happiness and relief spring to her eyes.

"I am so glad you are ok. I was so worried he that something had happened to you," she gushed.

While Lois rambled on, Chloe forced a smile pretending to listen, but she couldn't help but feel worried. She was grateful that she was alive and safe, but she was concerned for her friend. Clark usually would have been the one to save her and the fact that no one seemed to know where he was worried her even the more. She knew that things between Clark and Lex had been growing more tense and suddenly an dreadful thought crossed her mind.

_What if Lex finally learned Clark's secret?_

Chloe couldn't shake the feeling that something very horrible had happened to her friend and she couldn't wait to get back to Kansas so she could start searching for her missing Kryptonian friend.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Logan had just arrived on the ground level of the mansion searching for any signs of lingering intruders when he suddenly felt an explosion that violently rocked the foundation of the institution. When the sound was quickly followed by a blood curling scream from Ororo, Logan waisted no time and dashed back up to the second story where he had left the weather witch. As he rushed up the stair case, his mind was was racing frantically. _Was Ororo fatally wounded? What was the cause of the explosion? Was any of the students harmed?_

When he arrived on the scene he found a blond woman and a young man sitting on the ground with bewildered and puzzled looks on their faces. A few feet away, Kitty and Jubilee were huddled together wearing similar expressions. His frown deepened when he noticed that Ororo was nowhere to be seen. Spotting Remy, he rushed over to the tall man with black and red demon like eyes, determined to get an explanation as to what had happened.

"Gumbo, what happened? Where's Ro?" he demanded hastily.

The cajun looked as if he was in shock and he opened his mouth as if he was trying to explain, but no words came out. Something major had to have happened to render Remy speechless which made Logan's concern deepen. Frustrated and anxious to get to the bottom of what had happened, he was about to interrogate Remy once more when Scott intervened.

"Before I tell you anything, you have to know that Gambit was not in control of himself," the leader of the Xmen started slowly.

Logan's patience began to wear thin. He was already getting the feeling that whatever it was he was about to hear he was definitely not going to like it.

"What the hell happened One Eye, and I ain't gonna ask you nicely again," Logan warned through his clenched teeth.

Not wanting to anger the feral man any more then he already was, Scott quickly explained what had transpired in the last ten minutes. When he finished, Logan felt several choice curse words flow from his lips uncontrollably. Not bothering to spare the silent and shaken cajun another look, he rushed towards the window to find Clark lying on the front lawn on with blood spilling out onto the grass from beneath him. Beside the motionless farm boy, Ororo was screaming for anyone who was listening to get Hank from the lab for medical help. He didn't have to know Clark's vitals in order to see that the younger man was slowly dying. Suddenly The Green Arrow came into the hall with confusion etched across his face.

"What the hell just blew up?" he asked looking around startled.

Logan faced the other man with a grim expression on his face.

"I hate to tell you this kid, but something very bad has happened to your friend Clark," he started before he filled the leather clad vigilante in.

As Oliver listened, his face practically turned as white as a sheet. However when he turned his eyesight towards Remy, his face began to turn a deep red and Logan didn't have to use any of his enhanced senses to tell that the man was irate.

"You son of a bitch," he started making a threatening move towards Remy.

Scott quickly jumped in his path.

"It was an accident, Oliver. Remy didn't mean to hurt Clark," he tried.

"The hell he didn't! He knew that Clark was powerless and he still attacked him. Your friend is nothing more then a spineless coward," he growled furious.

Oliver's harsh statement seem to snap Remy out of his trance and slowly the cajun turned towards The Green Arrow with sorrow etched deep into his handsome face.

"It was...an accident. Remy didn't mean to," he trailed off helplessly feeling guilty and horrified at what he had done.

Dinah quickly stepped in.

"Oliver, he's right. It was an accident. If Bart and I would have stopped the agent for controlling Remy in the first place, none of this would have happened. Speaking as someone who was recently controlled by that serum, there was nothing Remy could have done to stop himself," Dinah said gently in defense of Remy.

"None of those excuses is going to change the fact that Clark is now lying down thier barely alive," he snarled before turning his attention back to Remy, "If my friend dies, then you will be held responsible and I promise you that."

With that threat hanging in the air, Oliver took off to go see to his friend.

"Oliver wait," Bart tried.

"Let him be," Logan warned quietly before following Oliver down into the yard where a group of people who had gathered had formed a circle around Ororo and Clark.

Down on the lawn, Clark slowly began to gain consciousness and when he had opened his eyes, he found himself lying on his back on the semi scorched yard of the lawn were Ororo resided. His nostrils was instantly filled with the overwhelming smell of smoke and what smelled like burnt flesh. As he tried to sit up, he suddenly experienced the worse pain he ever felt in his entire life streak through his chest and he cried out loudly. Almost like an angel of mercy and grace, he looked over to find Ororo by his side; her white hair was dancing furiously in the wind and her aquatic blue eyes were filled with tears. Instantly she pinned him down by the shoulders and stared at him sternly, even though her face showed that she was clear worried.

"Do not move. We need to stabilize you first," she commanded gently even though her usually calm voice trembled slightly as she accessed his wounds.

Clark, mustering all the strength he could, gently grabbed Ororo's wrist forcing her to look at him. His body felt like it was on fire and the pain was so intense that it was a struggle for him to remain alert and conscious. He could feel that he was dying and judging from the hope and faith lingering in Ororo's beautiful deep blue eyes, he was the only one who had wasn't in any denial about this fact. As he gasped for air as blood slowly began to flood his lungs, he knew that he had to prepare her for what was about to happen no matter how hard it would be.

"Ororo, listen to me," Clark pleaded wheezing heavily.

The weather witch shook her head almost as if she somehow knew what he was about to tell her. Grabbing his hand, she held it to her chest tightly and stared down into his eyes.

"Do not speak. You must reserve your energy. I lost my parents, Jean and Charles. Please do not tell me that I will lose you too because I...," she broke off emotionally, "I could not bear that."

Clark tried to respond, but too much blood had filled his lungs and he was beginning to feel as if he was slowly drowning. As his body began to grow numb and cold, his eyes grew heavy as if he was about to enter into a deep peaceful sleep. He weakly lifted his hand and was relieved and greatly comforted when he felt Ororo's small and petite fingers intertwine with his. He could tell from the devastation written across her grief stricken face that she was slowly beginning to come to terms with what was about to happen. Suddenly different scattered images began to flash in front of his eyes. Images of his smiling mother and father, Lana, Chloe, Lois, Pete, Oliver, Lex, Ororo, and...J'onn???"

He blinked wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him however when he he heard the sound of Logan's metal claws extracting, he knew that he wasn't seeing things. Before he could open his mouth to speak a wave of pain washed over him and once again, he fell unconscious. Seeing Clark's eyes flutter closed, Ororo blinked back tears as she pressed her head against his chest and barely heard a heart beat. For a moment she felt as if she was trapped in a horrible nightmare that she couldn't wake herself from. It couldn't end this way! Fate wouldn't be so cruel as to allow Ororo to find Clark after so many years only to have him violently snatched away, would it?

Logan walked over to the mysterious visitor tense and prepared to attack. He was annoyed with intruders invading his home and he was not about to allow another attack to happen.

"Who are ya, bub and where the hell did you just come from?" he snarled.

The black man didn't seem afraid and stared Logan down calmly.

"I am not here to cause you any harm. I am here for Kal-El," he said simply.

"Well I don't know who the hell is Kal-El, bub, but you can," Logan started.

"Are you a friend?" Ororo interrupted anxiously looking directly at the man for the first time since he had arrived.

J'onn nodded solemnly.

"Yes. I am a guardian of sorts to Kal-El," he said before pausing to take in Clark's current condition, "I must take him away immediately. He has only a small window of time where both his life and his abilities can be restored."

"Wait. How do we know that you can be trusted?" Scott asked cautiously.

Ororo stared into J'onn's eyes and a strange feeling wash over her. She did not know the man standing before her, but something told her that she should trust him and at that moment she didn't have any choice so she decided to follow her gut instincts praying silently to the goddess that she would not regret that decision. Inhaling sharply she lifted her head towards J'onn with determination on her face.

"If there is a way you can save him then you must do what you have to do. Just....please...keep Clark safe," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion as she slowly backed away from the motionless farm boy with tears blurring her vision.

J'onn nodded respectfully before kneeling down and lifting the native Kryptonian into his arms.

"Do not worry. Kal-El shall not perish this day."

Those were the last words the Martian spoke before he shot off towards the sky faster then anyone could blink.

**End Note: I wasn't quite sure whether or not Oliver knew of J'onn or actually ever met him so that's why Oliver didn't vouche for him in case anyone was wondering. If anyone knows otherwise feel free to leave it in a review. I Appreciate it.**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: This chapter is dedicated to everyone who keeps the reviews coming! Thank you for inspiring me to continue.**

**Three Days Later....**

Clark woke up to find himself being blinded by the heavy sunshine pouring through an opening across the room. As he sat up trying to shake away the grogginess that had built from him being unconscious for three days, he realized that he was on the couch in the loft of his barn. Standing up slowly, he was startled to find that the small coffee table in front of the couch were nothing more then wooden splinters.

"You were somewhat disoriented when I bought you back from the sun and you fell through it," a male voice explained amused.

Clark looked over startled to see the Martian, J'onn, leaning up against his desk with his usual serious yet someone humored expression on his face. He grinned as he realized that the broken table meant that his abilities had returned and that he was no longer powerless.

"I'm glad to see you are alright, Kal-El. For awhile there I was beginning to think I had been too late," J'onn said walking over to him slowly.

"You saved me once again, J'onn. I don't know how I could ever began to repay you," he started.

J'onn shook his head cutting him off.

"It is my duty and honor to protect you, Kal-El. Your destiny is far greater then mine and I would not hesitate to give my life for it. With that being said, I'm afraid that I will no longer be able to protect you any longer due to the fact that my own abilities are now gone," he said gravely.

Clark eyes widned horrified.

"What do you mean that your abilities are gone?" he exclaimed.

"Let's just say that the sun does to me what Kryptonite does to you. There was a reason why I only appeared under the cloak of darkness, Kal-El. The sun weakens me and when I got as close as I did to revive you and your abilities, my powers were stripped therefore rendering me as normal as the Earthlings among us," he explained.

"J'onn...I didn't know...I don't know what to say," Clark said quietly feeling a huge wave of guilt wash over him.

The Martian smiled at him reassuringly.

"Do not be distressed, Kal-El. Many sacrifices have been and will be made along the course of your journey. What is important is that you finally realize the steps you must take in order to begin your destiny," he said seriously.

Clark nodded.

"You are right about me and my destiny, but before I can even dwell on any of that, there is somewhere I must go first," he started.

"What could possibly more important then dealing with your destiny?" J'onn asked startled.

"I have to go see Ororo and let her know that I am ok. She doesn't know whether I'm dead or alive and I don't want to leave her wondering," Clark started.

"There will be plenty of time for you to reconnect with your friend, Kal- El. Right now you must focus on a situation that strongly needs your attention," J'onn tried.

Suddenly Clark heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up into the yard and using his x ray vision he looked through the walls of the barn to see Chloe's burgundy PT Cruiser parked near the basket ball goal and he saw that she wasn't alone either. Seconds later she and Oliver walked up the stairs leading to the loft and instantly Clark was hugged tightly by Chloe.

"Clark?! You're ok! I was so worried," the blonde cried happilly as she embraced her friend tightly.

Clark hugged her back equally as happy and relieved to see her.

"I was worried about you! Oliver told me that Lex's people had taken you. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" he asked checking her over worried.

Chloe laughed and waved him off.

"I'm fine," she paused before noticing the strange man in the room for the first time, "Who's your friend Clark?"

"Oliver, Chloe, this is J'onn. He is from Mars and he is responsible for saving my life and restoring my abilities. J'onn, these are my friends Oliver Queen and Chloe Sullivan," Clark said making introductions.

J'onn nodded in Chloe's and Oliver's direction politely.

"First Lois and Jimmy shows up to save me out of all people and now I'm being introduced to a man from Mars. I honestly don't see this week getting any stranger," Chloe smiled amused.

Clark frowned and raised an dark eyebrow inquisitively.

"Lois and Jimmy rescued you? That was very dangerous of both of them," Clark started to protest.

Oliver laughed amused.

"Calm down, Clark. You were in disposable and she was in danger. Someone had to play hero/heroine and who better then the ass kicking reporter Lois Lane and her trusty sidekick Jimmy Olsen," he snickered.

Clark gave the billionaire vigilante a dirty look.

"That's not funny, Oliver. Lois and Jimmy seriously could have been hurt," he warned.

"You can't be everywhere at once, Clark. Besides, I'm fine and Lois and Jimmy are both fine as well. We have bigger and more important things to focus on," she said seriously.

"Listen, if this is about Lex, I will find him and deal with him. I won't let him expose my secret," Clark stated firmly.

Chloe shook her head troubled.

"Clark, not to doubt you, but Oliver filled me on what happened back at the Fortress of Solitude. Not only does Lex knows your secret, but the fact that he is lurking out there waiting for the perfect opportunity to expose your secret to the world really creeps me out, " she said worried.

"We don't even know if he is alive or not, Chloe," Clark protested.

"Do you really want to take that chance?" she asked looking at him in disbelief.

When the farm boy failed to answer, Chloe decided to try a more direct and firm approach.

"Listen, Clark, you have to get the illusion of the old Lex out of your head, because he is no longer your friend. Lex is more dangerous and more power driven then ever. He is taking the meteor infected and experimenting on them. The only way they were able to control Dinah and Bart is because Lex had my mother experimented on and enough is enough. Something needs to be done about Lex and his labs or a lot more innocent people will either die or end up so messed up that they wished they were already dead," Chloe warned.

"Clark, if you don't do something about Lex, then someone else will," Oliver added somberly.

Clark looked at both of his friend's sharply.

"We can't just kill him in cold blood, guys. That's not what you or I believe is the right thing to do," he said firmly.

"I'm sorry, Clark, but if you think Lex will share your same sentiment then you are wrong. He's going to keep hunting and chasing after you until he is finally able to control you and after that happens it will be too late to stop him. Did you not learn anything from the past few days," Oliver exploded frustrated.

Before Clark had the chance to respond, J'onn interrupted.

"Your friend's are right, Kal-El. You cannot continue to be passive aggressive with Lex. If it wasn't for Zor El stripping away your powers, who knows what kind of evil Lex will be having you carry out at this moment. You mustn't be allowed to be controlled. It could mean the end of man kind as we know it," he said

Clark sighed heavily.

"You guys are right, and I know what has to be done. Lex has to be bought to justice for all of his crimes and I can't do it alone with just the Justice League," he trailed off quietly before a thought suddenly struck him.

"So what are you going to do, Kal-El?" J'onn inquired curiously.

"I'm going to need more experienced help and I know exactly where to find it," he grinned before dashing off faster then a speeding bullet leaving J'onn and Chloe starring after him completely baffled.

********

Remy pulled up to Xavier's School for the Gifted to be greeted with the sounds of hammering and drilling as several of the students worked together around the estate to repair the demage sustain to the mansion after the attack days earlier. Grabbing his bag off the back of the motorcycle, he slung it over his shoulder and slowly made his way back to the school where he had been absent from for the past few days. He mumbled a greeting to Piotr who was vacuuming the floor and headed to the staircase that led to the second floor where his room was located. When he arrived on the second floor, he found Scott, Bobby, Kitty, Jubilee and Anna, who backs were facing him, working together to rebuild half the wall that had been blown through due to the explosion that he had inadvertently caused.

"There. That should be a proper temporary fix untill the construction workers can come and fix it," Scott said sounding and looking satisfied with the work he had just completed on the broken window that had been shattered days earlier.

"Next time bad guys decide they want to break iinto our home and cause damage then they should be the ones to be made to clean it up," Kitty sighed wearily as she leaned against the opposite and more sturdier wall taking a break.

"This is all Remy's fault," Bobby complained unhappily as he dropped his hammer back into the overcrowded tool box, "I would never play poker again with the guy. Who knows what will happen the next time he decides to snap and go all possessed on the rest us? The last thing anyone wants around here is to end up like Cla-, _ummph."_

Bobby grunted in pain as Jubilee elbowed him in the gut. Hard.

"Way to be sensitive, you big jerk," Jubilee growled rolling her eyes.

"I'm not the jerk or did you forget that your beloved Gambit was the one that walked out on Ororo after he killed her friend," he said crossly.

Scott cleared his throat.

"We do not know whether or not Clark is dead or alive, and Remy did not intentionally try to harm Clark. Until we get a conformation of any sort, I believe it would be best not to assume or commentate on the events of that night. It's a very sensitive subject to certain people and I for one do not want Ororo upset over any chatter that involves Clark's well being. Is that understood?" Scott asked sternly.

Not wanting to hear anymore of the conversation, Remy stepped into the opening letting his prescence be known.

"Speaking of Ro, have anyone here seen Stormy?" Remy asked stiffly, pointedly ignoring Bobby.

Seeing the cajun, Kitty and Jubilee gasped horrified.

"She's in her green house. She asked not to be disturbed. I think she is taking what happened to Clark kinda hard," Kitty said flustered.

"Look, Gambit. What I said was completely out of line," Bobby tried feeling ashamed at being over heard.

Remy smirked.

"Don't worry, mon ami. If Remy was to be honest, Y' were never any good at poker. Remy was startin' t' feel bad about takin' y' money every week anyways," he said arrogantly causing the Iceman to scowl deeply.

Suddenly Logan walked into the hall and everyone fell quiet. Seeing Remy, Logan's face darkened with anger.

"You and I need to have a word, _bub, _and it ain't a request," Logan stated evenly.

In that moment Remy suddenly discovered the source of all the tension that had filled the room after Logan's arrival. The other man was obviously pissed with him. Not wanting to cause the others anymore discomfort, Remy nodded silently and followed Logan outside into the front yard.

As he looked over to his left, his heart lurched as he noticed the black charred grass marred in the yard from where the explosion that had critically if not fatally wounded Clark had happened. He was beginning to wonder if he had really killed Clark, would Ororo ever be able to forgive him and more importantly, could he ever forgive himself??

"You want to tell me what the hell you were thinkin' when you decided to up and disappear for the past three days while everyone here was doing thier damnest to try to comfort Ro?" he asked abrupty and straight to the point.

"She didn't want me here. Dat much was obvious, homme'," Remy said stiffly.

Logan narrowed his eyes at the cajun evenly. He wasn't fooled one bit by Remy's lame ass excuse for why he had left immediately after the incident with Clark. He knew the reason Gambit had ran off was because he hadn't wanted to face the back lash for what had happened. Granted it hadn't _entirely _been Remy's fault, but in Logan's honest opinion, he believed that the cajan should have stayed and at least tried to take some kind of responsibility. Instead he had been driven away by his own guilt leaving Ororo to be comforted by array of diffrent friends, and that didn't quite sit well with the feral wolverine.

"It dosen't take a telepath t' see y' got somethin' on your chest, Logan. If there's somethin' y' want t' say t' Remy, jus' say it," he said hotly.

Logan narrowed his dark eyes at Remy, no longer disguising his anger. If Remy wanted him to be absolutely blunt, then Logan was more then willing to oblige.

"You should have been there for her, Gumbo. She took what happened to Clark hard, but you not being there for her when she needed you made it that much harder for her to deal with it."

"Remy knows y' are tryin' t' make a point, but he is failin' t' see what dat point is," he said evenly.

Logan bristled giving away the fact that he was becoming highly annoyed and agitated with the Cajun's attitude.

"The point is that you should have never ran away," he snapped.

"Watch what you say, padnat. Remy ain't run away. He left to give Stormy her distance. Considerin' what I did, you and I both know dat Remy was the last person she wanted to see after Remy nearly killed her precious Clark," he spat.

"Is that the real reason you left, Gumbo? So that you didn't have to stick around and watch her mourn over a man she once had feelings for?" he asked incredulously.

"Who's t' say dat she still dosen't?" Remy retorted.

"Listen, kid. Your fuckin' insecurities is yer problem. You walkin' out on Ro, is _my _problem," Logan growled dangerously.

Remy knew to tread cautiously whenever Logan would get this way, but he stubbornly refused to back down.

"What place is it of y' t' tell me anythin' Logan?" he demanded scathingly.

"Look, it ain't my place to say what I'm going to say, but it needs to be said. Everyone knows there is no love lost between you and Clark and while you are concerning yourself with whether or not Ororo and Clark may have feelin's for each other, you need to be concerning with yourself with her feelings towards you. As it stands now, you are not showin' Ro why you are the better choice."

With those words of warning, Logan clentched the tip of cigar between his teeth biting off the end before walking outside to smoke it. No sooner then he had left, Emma walked over to Remy and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Look, Gambit. Logan was way too harsh and I wouldn't take what he just said too personally. He's just looking out for the welfare of Ororo as we all are," she tried gently.

Remy shrugged Emma's hand away and glared at her evenly.

"You can go back and tell everyone who has opinion 'bout me and Stormy to shut their traps and mind their own business," he said darkly.

Before Emma could answer, Remy mumbled a few curse words under his breath before storming away from the telepath, his handsome face darkened with anger. As he made his way towards the green house to talk to his fiance, he began to contemplate the conversation he had with Logan and Emma, and felt his anger surge. Who did Logan think he was trying to chastise him for leaving? In fact, who did any of them think they were to tell him how to treat his Stormy?

"Judging from the confrontation I just overheard, It seems that you have return, Remy," was the abrupt and bland greeting he received from Ororo who was on her knees providing careful care to her plants.

"Stormy," he trailed off unable to find the appropriate words to say.

A long silence fell between them and an uncomfortable and awkward tension quickly filled the greenhouse. After Ororo finished potting a particularly fragile looking rose, she finally began to speak.

"I do not blame you for what happened to Clark. I understood what had happened to make you act that way, but there is one thing that I cannot understand," she paused in the middle of putting away her garden tools before turning to look at her fiance for the first time since he had stepped foot into the green house.

Remy could see the pain and hurt written across his fiance's face and he felt as if someone had stabbed a dagger right through his heart. He hated himself for being the reason why she looked so unhappy.

Remy swallowed deeply.

"Remy knows what y' are about t' say. Y' are wonderin' why Remy wasn't here," he said quietly.

"I cannot understand why you would just up and leave without a word after everything that has happened," she cried angrily, "I am not even sure whether or not Clark is alive and it would have been nice to know that my best friend and fiancee' could be here to provided me the comfort that I needed.".

"Stormy, wait," he tried reaching for her.

She snatched away and glared at him with tears filled in her gorgeous aquatic blue eyes.

"Where were you?" she asked evenly, "Where could you have possibly gone that was more bearable then being here with me?"

Remy swallowed deeply as he ran his fingers through his auburn hair nervously. The three days he had disappeared he had spent on the upper side of New York in a hotel room drunk and wallowing in self pity. He knew that Ororo would be mad when she learned he hadn't been there to comfort her because he was drunk but he knew she was going to be extremely furious when she learned that he had spent the past three days in the company of Anna. Nothing had happened between the former couple, but he knew Ororo wouldn't see it that way. She would just see it as him running from what he had done and instead of doing the honorable thing and staying to provide Ororo with solace, he had instead done what everyone more or less expected him to do.

"Remy, where were you?" she repeated sharply breaking him from his thoughts.

He exhaled deeply as he combed his fingers through his long silky auburn colored hair that had fallen loose from the ponytail he had earlier. He could never look her straight in the eye and lie to her because she knew him too well so he diverted his eyes before he spoke.

"Remy went to see an old friend and to clear his head,"he lied quietly with his head bowed in shame.

Ororo's hardened expression softened noticeably.

"I did not mean to make you feel responsible, my love. If I made you feel that way then I am sorry. So much had happened that night that I felt...lost. I should have came to you immediatly instead of making you feel that you had to leave," she said apologetically.

"Remy is so sorry, Stormy. If he knew dat y' wanted him here, he would have never left," he swore firmly looking her deep in the eyes praying that she believed him.

"It does not matter any longer, my love. You are here now and that is what counts," she murmured.

As Ororo embraced him, she felt a mixture of diffrent feelings surge through her. A part of her was happy to be back in the arms of her best friend and future husband, but another part felt guilty because moments earlier she had been wishing that Clark could be the one in her arms. As she pulled away from Remy, she tried to hide the frusteration and apprehension she had been feeling building inside of her. She loved Remy more then anything in the world, but she couldn't explain her feelings for Clark. She knew if she had the chance to see Clark alive again, she would have to deal with her feelings for him, and even though she would give anything to see Clark alive and well, she wasn't looking foward to the emotional turmoil that his survial would bring.

"I have to go in and prepare dinner. I told Anna I would take her turn because she seemed so exhausted the last time I had seen her. We will talk some more later," she promised with a smile before kissing him briefly on the lips and heading towards the mansion.

As he watched the white haired wind rider walk away, Remy felt as if he wanted to throw up. If Ororo knew the truth behind Anna's exhaustion he was certain she wouldn't be so quick to cover for her. He couldn't believe that he had just allowed himself to take the easy way out and lied to her yet again, and what was worse was that he had convinced Anna to lie as well. While Anna agreed, she had made Remy know that she wasn't comfortable with deceiving Ororo and Remy couldn't blame her. After all Ororo was a good friend to Anna and if the weather witch ever found out that Anna had lied twice to her face, he knew the friendship between the two women would be strained if not shattered.

Suddenly Logan's words from earlier began to echo in his ears and Remy began to wonder if the native Canadian had been right... Was Remy a coward? Did he really take the easy way out to spare Ororo's feelings, or did he do it because it was something that just came natural to him. He wanted to race after her and tell her the truth about everything, but he didn't because he knew he couldn't. Now was not the right time and he couldn't bring himself to cause her any more pain.

_Another time, _he swore to himself firmly, _Remy will tell her at everything another time...._

As he moved to head back into the mansion, he felt a rush of wind burst from behind him and he went completely still. He didn't have to have Logan's enhanced senses to know that there was someone behind him. As he went to grasp his bo stick to defend himself, a familiar voice him stopped him.

"I don't think that will be necessary," the soft yet masculine voice said amused.

Remy forced a smile and turned around to come to face to face with no one other then Clark Kent. The alien farmboy was standing a few feet away from him with a pleasant smile with not a single scratch or bruise on him. Remy was pleased and relieved to see Clark was alive and well, but he feltn awkward.

"Remy owes y' an apology, homme. He ain't mean t' cause y' or your friends any harm," he started.

Clark smiled warmly.

"It wasn't not your fault, Remy. Take it from someone who has has their free will taken away before," he assured kindly.

"Stormy's startin' dinner. You should stay. Remy t'inks she and everyone will be pleased to learn that you are alive," he said before turning to walk towards the mansion.

The sooner Ororo saw that Clark Kent was alive and well the sooner Clark could leave to return to Dullsville, Kansas or wherever he was from, and Remy could return back to mending his relationship with the woman he hoped to spend the rest of his life with.

"Remy, wait," Clark called after him.

Remy turned around and looked at the other man curious to what he was about to say.

"I came back to let Ororo know that I am alive and also for something else. As you may already be aware, Lex has gotten out of hand," he started.

Remy smirked.

"Sayin' dat y' old pal Lex has gotten out of hand is an understatement considerin' dat he almost killed Stormy once and almost killed you," Remy said wryly.

Clark nodded.

"That's exactly why Lex needs to be stopped. Area 3.11 is where Lex has been experimenting on meteor infected and mutants," he said firmly.

Hearing that caused Remy to bristle. He had never personally met the lunatic billionaire that had tried to control his Stormy, but the fact that the man had the nerve to try to torture other mutants left a foul taste in the Cajun's mouth. If he personally ever had the chance to stand face to face with the man they called Lex Luthor, he was pretty sure he would make the man pay for all of his crimes including the one against his Stormy. He was about to ask Clark what he was planning when the next words out of Clark's mouth caused Remy's heart to plummet to the pit of his stomach.

"Lex's experiments needs to be shut down...Permenantly. That is why I need Ororo and the Xmen's help."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	13. Chapter 13

**An: Thanks for all the reviews**

Ororo quickly hurried towards the War Room with a frown on her slender lips, and urgency in her step. Seconds ago she had received an telepathic message from Emma Frost calling for an meeting of the senior members of the Xmen team in the War Room immediately. Her first thought had been that some attack dealing with mutants had happened and she was being called to lead a team into the field. As she pushed open the door leading to the meeting room, she opened her mouth to inquire about the situation when the words died on her lips. Her eyes widened as she spotted Clark standing on the opposite end of the room with a serious look on his face as he was discussing something softly with Scott and Emma.

"Clark?"

Ororo had barely whispered his name, but Clark looked up in her direction the moment she had spoke. Seeing her, he stopped mid sentence in his conversation with Scott and felt a huge smile stretch across his lips. As he walked towards her slowly, he could sense a pair of eyes watching him and he didn't have to look up to know the glare belonged to Remy. While he didn't want to do anything to further anger the other man, he couldn't help the feelings swirling through him after laying eyes on Ororo. It seemed every time he would see her, the past they shared together would flash back to him intense and vividly. He could recall the last time he had seen her, she had been in tears and so frightened for him.

"I am so happy to see that you are alive and well. I was worried. We all were," she murmered before giving him a quick and friendly embrace.

"I'm sorry for causing you to worry about me like that," he said sheepishly. "I know there had to be another way to avoid putting you through that."

Before Ororo could respond she was interrupted by a petite and very perky brunette.

"Like, are you serious?" Kitty exclaimed, "If it wasn't for you, Clark, a lot of people would have been seriously injured or worse. You shouldn't be apologizing. You are a hero!"

While Clark blushed underneath the brunette's praise, Remy's scowl darkned noticably. Seeing that the tension in the room was rising, Emma cleared her throat and slowly rose from her seat beside Scott preparing to address the room.

"Although we are all very happy and relieved to see Clark alive and well, I'm afraid Clark has an very serious issue that he wish to discuss with us that involves the torture and killing of mutants and those whom he has referred to as the meteor infected," Emma said gravely.

At the White Queen's solemn statement, the room fell very quiet. Seeing that everyone was looking to him to explain the situation further, Clark inhaled deeply before he started.

"As much as I appreciate what Ororo and all of you have already done for me, I'm afraid that I must ask for another favor," Clark started. "Many of you know Lex Luthor as the man that had Ororo captured and experimented on and it will come to no one surprise when I tell you that he is still doing the same thing, only on different mutants and meteor infected. Lex has to be stopped and bought to justice once and for all. As much as I thought that I could save him from himself one day, I cannot afford to maintain that hope when more innocent people die every day by his hand and experiments," he said firmly with deep conviction.

"I could not agree more. What is it that we can do to help?" Scott asked in leadership mode.

"I would like a small team to accompany me back to Kansas and help shut down these torture houses of mutants once and for all," Clark announced.

Immediately Emma nodded her consent.

"I think the Xmen can spare a five man team for a short term deployment to Kansas to help. Things on this end have been relatively quiet lately with the exception of the FOH and the occasional uprising from the Brotherhood," she said looking towards Scott who continued:

"Since Ororo has a past with Clark...," Scott faltered and blushed deeply as he realized how the statement had sounded.

Across the room Ororo shifted slightly and Remy inhaled sharply.

"U-um, what I meant to say is that since Ororo is familiar with Kansas she will be the leader of this team and I will leave it at her sole discretion to chose the members she wish to take into the field with her," he stated.

"So at this time, Ororo, you have the floor," Emma smiled before lowering herself back down into her seat.

The wind rider cleared her throat softly before rising to her feet and facing her team mates.

"Anna, Remy, Logan and Kitty will be the members of my team," she said with no hesitation.

Ororo knew from the way Logan had been acting for the past few weeks that he was slowly becoming agitated with the lack of action and the promise of storming in and shutting down warehouses that tortured mutants would be right up his alley. Kitty Pryde was the best hacker and computer savvy mutant on the team and having her expertise and skills in the field would be very useful. Anna's strength and fighting prowess along with Remy's own expert combat skills would provide her team with all the necessary tools needed to work efficiently on completing the mission

"I appreciate the support the Xmen is providing," Clark smiled gratefully inadvertantly causing several of the x women to smile back a little more friendlier then they normally would.

_Oh lord that man smile should be quarantine because it's definitely infectious, _Anna thought silently starring at Clark appreciatively.

Scott quickly cleared his throat.

"This meeting is dismissed. Remy, may you stay back briefly so that I can have a private word with you," he asked as several Xmen began to scatter from the War Room.

Once the door closed Scott began to speak cautiously.

"So much has happened since Clark has resurfaced into Ororo's life, and we have yet to discuss....certain things," he started carefully.

"When I told yo' femme' Emma dat Clark and Ororo is no concern to anybody, dat included y' too, padnat," Remy said testily.

Scott held his hands up as a sign of peace.

"I'm not talking to you as a leader. I'm talking to you as a...friend," Scott offered with a warm smile, "...and as a friend, let me just say this to you. Ororo and I have been friends for a long time and I would hate to see her feelings get hurt in any way. The best way you can prevent that from happening is just to be nice to Clark."

Remy smirked. He respected the fact that everyone was just being a concerned friend of Ororo's, but he was starting to think people were going a little overboard.

"Is there a point?" he asked bored.

"If you cannot put aside your personal feelings, perhaps it would be best if one of you remained here in Wenchester. In fact, Remy, I believe your purpose would be better served here then in Kansas," he said honestly.

Remy smirked bitterly.

"Did Stormy put you up to this or was it Logan?" he asked snidely.

Scott shook his head wearily.

"Neithier of them put me up to anything. I just saw some things that concerned me and I was just checking to see whether or not your head was in the right place. The most dangerous thing you can do is go into a mission emotionally distracted," he said seriously.

Remy rose from his chair slowly and forced a smile.

"Remy appreciate yo' concern, homme, but when it comes to bein' emotionally distracted, Remy ain't de one you should be worryin' bout," he said curtly before turning on his heels and walking out of the office.

As he walked out the door he spotted Ororo and Clark several feet away standing close together and laughing quietly. Closing his eyes, he exhaled deeply forcing away the tension he felt trying to creep into his shoulders. He had to get a handle on the paranoia and insecurity that he was feeling or it would bring him nothing but trouble and turmoil. As he drew closer, he was able to pick up a partial piece of the conversation that the two were holding.

"Will you be staying for dinner?" he heard her ask him hopefully.

Clark blushed lightly.

"I wouldn't want to impose," he tried.

Before Ororo had the chance to insist, Remy stepped in. As much as he didn't want to do what he was about to do, he decided to take Scott's advice when it came to dealing with Clark's presence. If things were to flow smoothly for the three of them in the duration of the upcoming weeks, Remy reluctantly agreed that it would be best for everyone if he had a slight attitude adjustment when it came towards his feelings towards Clark. Putting on the most charming expression he could manage, he faced Clark with a pleasant and warm smile.

"Nonsense, mon ami. Remy knows that with everything that has happened in the past few days ain't had de chance to eat a proper home cook meal and there fore we insist dat you stay," he said friendly.

Clark and Ororo's expression's both showed they were surprised by Remy's invitation.

"Well if you will insist, I will accept your kind offer. I'll see you both at dinner," Clark murmured before walking away to give the couple their privacy.

"That was incredibly nice of you to make Clark feel welcomed," Ororo murmured smiling at her fiance' appreciatively once Clark had disappeared from their sight.

Remy smiled modestly.

"Remy jus' want t' do his best t' make everything run smoothly between us. If bein' nice t' Clark will make y' happy, then Remy will play nice," he promised before giving her a charming wink.

Ororo cupped her lover's face in her hands and smiled up at him tenderly. She knew that he was looking to be reassured that everything was ok and if he could put aside his differences with Clark, the least she could do is show gratitude for his effort.

"My heart belongs to you, Etinne. You are and have always been the only man that I have ever wanted. Nothing has changed that and nothing ever will," she promised kissing him lightly on the lips, "There is nothing between Clark and I besides friendship."

Hearing these words of assurance, a deep look of relief passed across Remy's handsome face.

"Remy knows dat, mi cherie. It's jus' dat he-," he started.

Ororo pressed her lips against his gently silencing him. Feeling him tense surprised, she took advantage of the rare victory of catching him off guard and wrapped her arms around him tighter deepening the kiss. A part of her was desperately wanting him to once again feel the spark and connection between them that had made them fall in love in the first place. Ever since Clark had come around, he had been distracted. The confidence, or as Bobby would put it, Remy's _swagger _had changed slightly. He wasn't as confident and as secure as he had been before Clark's return and the truth was, neither was Ororo. However she knew that if their relationship was to have any chance of surviving, she would have to reassure him with as much faith as she could muster, even if she was confused herself.

"Mon Dieu, femme," he said breathless as they broke the kiss and he stared down at her wide eyed, "What was dat fo'?"

Ororo bit her bottom lip almost shyly.

"If that did not just show you how deeply I love you," Ororo paused lowering her voice into a more sultry tone, "Maybe I can show you a little more intimately in the privacy of our room."

Remy's face immediately lit up and waisting no time, he swept his fiance off of her feet and dashed the rest of the way up the stairs with Ororo's soft peal of laughter following behind them.

As Clark watched the couple retreat up towards Ororo's loft, Clark felt his heart sink into his chest and couldn't help the fleeting jealousy he felt surge through him as Ororo's loving words towards Remy echoed in his ears. It was time like these that he wished that his hearing wasn't so sensitive. Almost as if Ororo could feel the weight of his stare, she glanced over her shoulder and thier eyes locked for a split second before she disappeared from his sight.

_What does it matter anyway, _he thought to himself unhappily, _She's made her choice, and it wasn't you, remember?_

Forcing his thoughts and feelings for Ororo he headed towards the kitchen preparing to join the others for dinner unaware that Scott and Emma were watching him discreetly through the window of the head masters office a floor above him.

"Are you sure sending Ororo and Remy to Kansas to aide Clark is a good idea? What it Remy was right? What if it isn't him we have to worry about being emotionally distracted? What if it's Ororo? What if it's Clark?"

Emma smiled and kissed her lover comfortingly on the cheek.

"Don't worry, darling. Ororo is a brilliant leader first...a woman in love... second. She will get through this mission with, the team, and her heart in tact. You are one of her oldest and most dearest friends, Scott. You should have more faith in her," she chided gently.

Scott scratched his head sheepishly as he blushed lightly.

"You're right, Emma. I guess I'm just being a worry wart. I'm going to go wash up for dinner and I promise I will back off the whole Clark/Remy/Ororo situation," he promised with a genuine smile.

After watching her lover disappear out of the head master's office, she turned her attention back towards the direction Clark had disappeared. Even though she rather die before loudly admitting it, she was slightly jealous of Ororo. Clark was an exceedingly handsome man who had the most incredible power she had ever sensed in any being she had ever met. Even though she truly cared for Scott, she couldn't help but to think of what a powerful couple she and Clark would make together. With his abilities combined with hers they would be practically unstoppable. While the thought was seductive, Emma knew it would never happened. From what she gathered, Clark's heart was just pure as his intentions for Ororo were.

_I wouldn't give up hope so soon, Clark,_ Emma thought to herself as a sly smile spread across her pretty lips, _Ororo's heart isn't as devoted solely to Remy as she allows everyone to believe..."_

Suddenly Scott's concerned voice broke through her thoughts.

"Are you coming?" he asked poking his head back into the office.

Emma smiled warmly before following him up the stairs towards the bedroom they shared together.

**Somewhere Outside Metropolis...**

Tess Mercer felt her heart race in her chest anxiously as she pulled up at to a dark three story house located outside of Metropolis in the back of a sleek long Cadillac. Her driver climbed out of the car and rushed around to open her door to let her out. After giving him specific instructions to wait for her outside, she turned swiftly on her heels and headed up the cobblestone driveway leading to the house. After her plan to capture the Green Arrow had met a disastrous end, Tess had beginning to think her hopes of finding Lex was dwindling when she had received startling and new information on the missing billionaire's location. Apparently Lex's physician had somehow managed to come into possession of Lex and was holding him at an undisclosed location privately administering medical attention to him. With every step she took her anxiety grew as she began to wonder whether or not she should be hopeful about finding her boss located inside. For all she knew this could be some ploy to exploit money for Lex, or worse, it could be a trap set by a former ally of his who had somehow found out about his misfortune.

The moment she sat foot into the house, she was instantly greeted by one of her lead agents.

"Is it true? Has Lex been located?" Tess asked nearly breathless with anticipation and anxiety.

Agent White nodded with a brief smile.

"Yes ma'am. Moments ago we were briefed by Dr. Sawyer that a couple of fishermen had found Mr. Luthor in Anartica barely alive, and once they learned of his identity they contacted someone in the company. We had to pay a hefty price, but we are now in possession of Lex Luthor," he assured.

Tess felt a huge smile of relief spread across her lips.

"Excellent. This is the best news I have heard all week. I want to see him. Where is he?" she inquired.

"If you follow me this way, Ms. Mercer, I will lead you to him," Agent White murmured before walking off down the hall. A couple of minutes later they arrived down into a dark basement filled with medical equipment and a single bed in the middle of the room that was empty.

"Now that Lex has been found, we have to provide the world a cover story for his absence," Tess murmured before pausing," Call a press conference in front of the Luthor Corp building tomorrow and release a statement that Lex has been terribly injured in an bad skiing accident and seeking medical care in a private facility. That is all the information that will be provided at this time."

As the agent disappeared to fulfill her wishes, Tess made her way over to the woman she recognized as Lex's physician, Dr. Diane Sawyer who was standing by a water filled tank scribbling notes on a clip board.

"How's his progress, doctor?" Tess asked curt hovering over the hydro tank, startled to find that was where Lex was being kept in.

Diane Sharp frowned as she took a moment to size the other woman up. A few days earlier she had been contacted by highly mysterious agents to over see the medical treatment the surly billionaire who had appeared to be in a horrific accident. She didn't get the exact story of what happened due to the highly secretive nature of the agents working around her.

"Not good, I'm afraid. He has multiple broken bones, damaged organs and his skull has been fractured in several different places. It's a medical miracle in itself that he is still alive. I think that whoever has power of attorney as to what to do concerning Mr. Luthor's health needs to come to terms that it is highly unlikely that he will make any kind of recovery in the next twenty four hours. His injuries are far too grave," she said gently.

"You were hired you because you are the best, Dr. Sharp. We didn't hire you so that you can just admit defeat," Tess said coldly, "You're fired."

The woman's jaws dropped stunned.

"You can't just fire me. You don't have the authority," she said outraged.

Tess smiled evenly.

"Actually, I do. Lex left me in charge in case anything was to happen to him which means _I _have power of attorney," she said smugly before turning to two of the agents guarding the entrance of the room, "Please escort Dr. Sawyer off the property. She is trespassing."

As the two men went to grab Diane, she wrestled against them mortified and irate by the treatment she was currently receiving. She was a reknown surgeon country wide. No one threw her out anywhere and she was sure to let Tess Mercer know that there would be repercussions.

"You won't get away with this. I'll let the whole world know that you have Lex holed up here and that you are keeping him from receiving professional and medical care. You will be bought up on criminal charges," Diane snarled before yanking free from security and storming out of the lab fuming with her white lab coat blowing in the wind behind her.

Tess bristled. She didn't take kindly to being threatened.

"Find her and make sure she is silenced...permanently. Have her body disposed where no one will be able to find it. I do not want any connections with that woman leading back to Mr. Luthor. Is that clear?" the woman snapped coldly.

"Yes ma'am," the agents replied obediently before dashing off to make sure her wishes were carried through precisely.

Fighting back her anger, Tess turned her attentions back to Lex.

"Don't worry, Lex. You will be whole and well again no matter how long it may take and how many useless doctors we may have to go through. I promise you that," she murmured as she gently pressed her hand against the glass like tomb that encased the comatose billionaire, "Until then I will take care of everything just the way you directed me to. Despite the minor setback, I won't let you down."

Suddenly the sound of footsteps caused her head to jerk up and she looked over to see one of her right hand agents standing in the threshold of the room.

"I am in the middle of something, Agent Gray. This has better be important," Tess growled evenly.

"I am afraid that I have bad news, ma'am. The warehouse housing project 3.11 in Arizona has been compromised and dismembered by the government," he informed hesitantly.

Tess muttered an explicit curse that caused several of the nurses and people in the room to cringe.

"This is unacceptable! What happened?" she demanded furious.

"Apparently, a reporter by the name of Lois Lane and a handful of unknown militant like accomplices are responsible for breaching the warehouse and rescuing one of the freaks before alerting the local authorities on the location of the 3.11 site."

Tess frowned deeply marring her beautiful facial features.

"Lex will not be pleased to hear this. The 3.11 project is very important to him and if he awakes to find that all his work has been destroyed a lot of people will pay...severely...," she warned darkly.

The agent gulped obviously shaken by the threat. Tess rolled her eyes. She couldn't afford for another mishap to go down. She had to make sure things were running smoothly or Lex wouldn't be happy and she had learned early on that a displeased Luthor was something to fear.

"What is it_ now_?" she asked exasperated.

"As you have requested we have found another doctor to oversee Mr. Luther's health," he informed.

The woman looked up sharply.

"That was extremely fast. What did you incompetent fools do? Call the first number you ran across in the yellow pages for doctors?" she asked nastily.

"Actually, this doctor managed to somehow find us, ma'am," he stammered.

The woman's cat like eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"How is that even possible? No one but a select few knows Lex is being kept here," she snapped.

"I don't have the slightest clue ma'am. All I can tell you is that we were approach moments ago by a man who says that he is aware of the critical condition of Mr. Luthor and he wants to speak to you to negotiate the terms of employing his service," he explained.

"Unless this good doctor has spent his time under a rock, he already knows that Lex is a very wealthy man and that payment for his services can easily be negotiated," she said impatiently as she tapped her heels against the tile floor agitated.

"He made it clear that money wasn't his motivation. I believe he wishes to be paid in another manner," the agent said softly.

Tess dark eyebrow arched curiously. With each second that was passing the doctor was becoming more and more intriguing to her. If this doctor wasn't driven by money, then what was his motivation?

"Exactly what proof do we have that this man is even capable of healing Lex?" she asked scathingly.

"We were given documents of his latest discoveries and what we read may interest you greatly, ma'am. He is a genius geneticist, a brilliant biologist, and a skilled surgeon who is well practiced in the science of cloning."

"And did this mysterious genius of a doctor happen to give you a name by any chance?" she asked flatly.

The Agent nodded.

"Essex....Dr. Nathaniel Essex."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**End note: If Dr. Essex doesn't sound familiar you might know him better as...Mr. Sinister....**


	14. Chapter 14

Late that next afternoon**, **the sound of a large vehicle rolling across the gravel in Clark Kent's drive way could be heard followed by the sound of a mixture of different voices filling the peaceful and quiet farm atmosphere. Ororo and her team had just arrived in Smallville and everyone was tired and hungry from the trip except one perky and excited brunette.

"Wow! I can't believe I finally get to see the legendary Smallville that Jubes and Bobby spoke so much about! Gosh, who knew Kansas would be so... beautiful," Kitty exclaimed climbing out of the car and gazing out at the golden country side surrounding Clark's farmhouse. It was in the early fall, so fields of wheat were standing tall and blowing gracefully in the breeze. At a distance horses roamed freely in a very large pin and the sound of crickets filled the air like a beautiful nature song.

Ororo smiled tenderly as she watched the young woman happily taking in her peaceful and tranquil surroundings. Sometimes she didn't realize just how much time they spent teaching the kids indoors and not enough time teaching them in the out in open surrounded by beautiful weather and fresh air. Seeing her innocent joy pleased her and she made a mental note to request that Scott put more outdoor activities in the kid's curriculum.

Climbing out of the front passenger seat of the SUV with her small luggage bag in her hand, she smiled as she began her short walk up the unpaved driveway. Being back at the rustic farmland bought back fond memories.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a screen door opening and slamming shut. Lifting her head she spotted Clark coming from the porch to greet them. It appeared that he had just finished a few farm chores judging by the smudges of dirt on his tight white shirt and across his dark denim jeans. As he came closer his smile broaden and Ororo couldn't help but think of how incredibly handsome he looked in his natural environment.

"Great! You guys are finally here. I'm glad that you made it safely. Come inside and I'll show you where you are staying and give you a tour of the place," he offered warmly.

As the "x" branded vigilantes filed into the house, Ororo looked around and found that the interior in the house had changed as much as the exterior had. Suddenly a short blonde emerged from the kitchen and Ororo smiled as she recognized the girl as Chloe Sullivan.

"Ororo!" Chloe gushed walking over to the weather witch, her beautiful green eyes sparkling with excitement, "When Clark told me that it was you who saved him from the Russian prison camp I could hardly believe it! I never expected to ever see you again!"

Ororo smiled warmly as she exchanged a quick and friendly embrace with the other woman. If it hadn't been for the help of Chloe when Lex had captured her several years back she wasn't sure if Clark and Remy would have been in time to stop her reign of destruction. Seeing Chloe bought back pleasant memories.

"It is wonderful to see you again, Chloe. Clark told me that you were taken captive, and I am please to see that you are alright," she murmured.

After introducing Chloe to the others, Clark led everyone through the house pointing out the sleeping arrangements before returning everyone back to the living room.

"While you guys are settling in I'm going to go grab dinner. Any suggestions of what anybody is in the mood for?" he inquired grabbing his blue jacket off the back of the reclining chair near the back of the living room.

Anna smiled flirtatiously.

"Ah will eat whatever you recommend is good, sugah," she said winking at him causing Clark to blush.

Suddenly there was a huge gush of wind and Clark had disappeared. Before anyone could inquire as to wear he went, seconds later he returned with several carry out boxes filled with delicious smelling Japanese cuisine.

Kitty's eyes widened in awe as she stared at the ancient symbols decorated on the side of the box. The strong delicious scent filling the air was enough to make Kitty's mouth water with anticipation. Judging from the smells and the looks of things, it was almost as if....

"No way! Is this truly authentic?" she asked amazed.

Clark grinned.

"It's the best Tokyo had to offer," he said with a self pleased grin on his face.

"Show off," Chloe teased playfully as everyone laughed before filing into the kitchen to eat.

************

Nathaniel Essex tapped his fingers against the car door handle impatiently as he sat waiting in the back of a black Lincoln to hear whether or not Tess Mercer had accepted his rather generous offer to help the critically wounded Lex Luthor. Usually he didn't take too kindly to being made to wait, but considering the present circumstances, he reluctantly decided to make an exception.

It wasn't just conscience that the doctor had happened to just stumble upon Alexander Luthor and his tragic truth was, months ago, Dr. Essex had been falling short on one of his genetic experiments and had been growing frustrated when he had learned that a rich billionaire had been setting up shops and abducting mutants so that he could run test and experiments on them. Intrigued, the doctor had did his research and found out that the billionaire was a man by the name of Lex Luthor and the project had been named 3.11.

Over the course of the past few weeks Sinister had been keeping a close eye on the results of Luthor's project by employing spies in Luthor's staff to steal information involving the project straight from Lex's own notes and moment Lex completed and became successful with the experiments, Essex had planned to step in and steal the work and instead use it for his benefits.

Things had taken a drastic turn when Sinister had learned the grave news of Lex's misfortunate accident in Antarctica. Not seeing any other way to get closer to the project, Essex reluctantly decided to offer his expertise in bringing back Lex to good health in exchange with overseeing project 3.11 until it was completed.

Essex thoughts were interrupted when a sharp knock echoed on the other side of the window, Annoyed, Sinister rolled down the window and came face to face with one of the agents.

"I'm sorry, doctor. Ms. Mercer had to run to Metropolis to take care of some business. She wanted me to tell you that she appreciates your interest, but Mr. Luthor already has enough physicians overseeing his well being," the agent said nervously, before turning to walk away from the vehicle.

Sinister's eyes narrowed into tiny slits as he felt anger began to bubble deep inside of him. He wasn't a man accustomed to hearing the word no and he wasn't a man that appreciated being lied to. Tess Mercer was a foolish woman if she thought that dismissing him was going to be that simple.

"I highly doubt that you have forgotten that you are getting your bread buttered on both sides. I pay you to keep me inform. That payment also insures that you give me exactly what I need and I need to get inside of that building without leaving any traces that I was here. You can make that happen," he said evilly.

"If Tess Mercer comes back and find Lex gone, she will do a lot more then fire us. She will have us killed," he said frighten.

Essex narrowed his eyes annoyed.

"You should not be in fear of a mere woman with no power. You have a bigger problem on your hands, you pathetic fool. You do not wish to feel the wrath of Sinister."

The agent gulped fearfully. Seeing that the man needed a little more convincing, the doctor lowered his hood and his eyes glowed an eerie red as he glared into the other man's eyes menacingly.

"We can do this one of two ways Agent White. You can radio to your men giving me access to the building or I can walk in myself, but heed my warning. If I do not have the cooperation of you and your men, no one will be left alive when I walk away," Dr. Essex warned coolly, "Now tell me. Which do you prefer?"

Seconds later the agent had opened his door from the outside while relaying a hasty message over his walkie talkie that he had someone coming in with authorized clearance from Tess Mercer.

A dark smiled spread across his almost bluish lips as he slowly advanced inside where Lex and project 3.11 was unknowingly waiting to be claimed by him and used for very dark purposes.

He had tried to do things simple and unmessy, but he was being left no choice. He would get to Lex and his project one way or another and if he had to get rid of Tess Mercer in order to get to Lex...then so be it. Nothing was going to stop him from getting the blue prints to create his own army of perfect soldiers so he could have world domination. Nothing.....

*********

An hour later everyone gathered in Clark's living room to devise a plan and discuss strategic approaches to put a permanent end to project 3.11. Chloe had taken the liberty to set up a make shift wall with different important notes and information written on them for the benefit of the briefing there were preparing to receive.

"Let Operation Terminate Project 3.11 began," she said jokingly as everyone got settled into their seats.

Ororo nodded instantly jumping into the leadership role she had grown to be become comfortable with throughout the years.

"If we are to make a strike at Luthor's project, we are going to need to strike hard. In order to do that we need to come in contact with information that will lead us in the right direction of the 3.11 project locations."

Chloe nodded in agreement before passing around copies of blue prints to two separate buildings to everyone in the room.

"Any information regarding any clues on Lex's experiments with the meteor infected will be found in one of two places. The paper I just handed out are the breakdown of the two facilities were all Luthor's dark and dirty secret's can be found; at his office at his mansion or at the Daily Planet. In order to began to have any leads we have to get both of his private computers and download all his files and documents," Chloe informed.

Ororo nodded.

"Then that will be our mission for this evening. We will divide into two different teams; one led by myself and the other by my co captain, Logan. Since we will need both Chloe and Kitty to get these files, Chloe will accompany Logan and Remy to the Lex Luthor mansion and Kitty will join Clark and I at the Daily Planet,

Kitty grinned and Remy laughed.

"That's right up Kitty's alley, no pun intended," he smirked noticing the glee written all over the young woman's face. "Hackin' into people personal electronic files is what she does best."

Chloe laughed.

"This is quite refreshing," Chloe laughed, "It's nice to not be the only member of the hacker club for once."

"What's mah part?" Anna asked curiously.

Ororo faced the native Missippi woman and smiled.

"You will meet up with Oliver over at the Isis to run communication keeping both teams in constant contact during the mission," she replied.

The brunette laughed.

"Ah ain't use to sittin' on the sidelines so this should be very interesting. Well at least Ah will have handsome here keepin' me company," she grinned causing Oliver to blush.

Suddenly Clark turned to Chloe with a worried look on his face.

"Listen to me, Chloe. I want you to promise me that you will be careful. You know that it's very dangerous for you to go into the field," Clark started hesitantly.

Logan quickly intervened.

"Listen, kid. She's gonna be with me and Gumbo. Ain't nothin' going to happen to your friend while she's with us. We'll get her in and out of there in one piece," Logan said gruffly.

"Clark, it's alright. It's not like I never had my share of field work and I'll be fine. I have a guy who can make things explode with a single touch and a guy who has metal claws that can rip any moving thing to shreds. I think I will be ok," she said amused.

Clark nodded slightly reassured and minutes later the Xmen were all dressed in their uniforms and ready to move out. Clark stared out at the group with a look of determination on his face. He was preparing to attack Lex head on and he felt confident he had the perfect group of people to help him take the power hungry billionaire down.

"Tonight marks the beginning of the end to Lex's reign of terror. From this moment on, I will not stop until Lex is bought to justice," Clark said firmly as he addressed the others, "No more innocent people will die. Let's go."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

**An: Sorry for the horribly long delay.**

An hour later Logan, Remy, and Chloe arrived outside of Lex's mansion taking cover behind bushes on the borderline of the estate. While the weather was practically clear, the moon was hidden behind one of a few clouds that was scattered throughout the velvet blue vast sky providing decent cover. Even though Chloe wasn't certain, she was sure that they had Storm to thank for the sudden fall of thick fog that was starting to spread through the dark night. Shivering she waited silently beside Remy as Logan darted off towards the mansion to survey the place more closely.

When the gruff Canadian had returned, he reported that he had counted several armed guards posted throughout different floors and rooms of the mansion. Two were standing at the opposite ends of the hall on the floor where Lex's office was located and while most of the other guards were wandering through the mansion aimlessly. As Remy and Logan debated quietly among themselves the best entry strategy to penetrate the dark mansion full of armed men, Chloe took advantage of the moment to observe her two strange yet fascinating companions.

While it was no secret that the quirky blond had experienced alot of supernatural things and had seen her share of incredible things in her short lifetime, she had never quite truly met anyone like Logan, Remy, Storm and Kitty. Not only were these amazing mutants with incredible abilities, instead of being like most of the psychotic meteor infected people that resided in Smallville, the group known as the Xmen had decided to use their gifts to protect others.

"Here's de plan. Remy tink it would be best if we entered through a window near the East side of the mansion. It is less guarded and it would be more easy to take out de men standin' watch," Gambit said abruptly jolting Chloe out of her trance of fascination bringing her back to the present.

"Take out?" she echoed, her eyes brows knitting with apprehension.

Logan smirked amused at the mortified expression on the pretty girl's face.

"Relax, darlin. What Gumbo means is that he is going to make the guys take a temporary dirt nap," he reassured chuckling softly.

"Don't worry, cherie. Remy has done this a time or two before without blood shed," Remy grinned winking at her.

"Yeah, but he ain't never done it without runnin' his trap," Logan smirked causing the cajun to shoot him a dirty look.

She could tell that despite the verbal pot shots at each other, the two men had a begrudging, yet deep respect for each other even though she seriously doubted that either of them would ever admit it aloud without extreme situations being present. After a few seconds past by they crept through a window on the first floor that Remy had unlocked easily and Chloe stayed crouched low while the two men crept forward and effortlessly took out the guards standing nearby who never stood a chance.

After signaling that the hall was clear for safe passage, Chloe quickly made her way down the dark hall she had walked many of times and crept into Lex's office, keeping a sharp eye out for any guards that may have slipped past Remy and Logan's attention. She had barely made it into the office when her ear piece buzzed signaling she was about to receive an incoming message.

"I just got word that Clark, Storm and Shadowcat has sucessfully gained access into the Daily Planet. How is everything going on your end, Chlo?" Oliver's voice came crackling through her ear causing her to smirk.

"If you're checking in to see if I'm fine, Oliver, I'm ok. I haven't even gotten to the hard part yet," she said amused as she sat in the leather chair behind the desk and pressed a button on the keyboard causing the computer to come to life.

Sometimes she found it touching how protective Oliver and Clark could be over her sometimes, but at other times she found it completely and utterly exasperating. While Chloe got comfortable behind the desk and began to hack into the computer, Anna spoke deep southern voice ranged in her ear

"So tell me something, Chloe. Is it true that Clark is single? Ah personally think it should be a crime to be that fine and not have an old lady," she drawled slyly causing Chloe to chuckle softly.

"Clark is just too busy being...Clark," Chloe said grinning as her fingers flew across the keyboard as she scurried to put everything on her thumb drive as quickly as possible, "I think if there was anyone that could ever keep up with him romantically and emotionally, she would have to be Superwoman."

Suddenly Remy's sharp voice came over the mike.

"Do y' tink y' can stop de petty chit chat and let de femme work, Rogue? Dis is a mission, not social hour," he growled.

"Don't worry, Gambit. I can type and talk at the same time. I promise you I am not an amateur," Chloe assured amused.

If Anna was put off by Remy's rudeness, she didn't let it show as she continued with the light chatter.

"Ah for one wouldn't mind being that woman," she purred causing Oliver to laugh softly in the back ground.

Remy snorted.

"Y' wouldn't mind bein' anyone woman , petite," he said flatly.

Chloe smiled amused as she listened faintly as the two playfully bantered with each other.

Chloe had a feeling that Remy responded the way he did do to the fact that their was major unspoken tension between him and her plaid loving best friend. She believed that Remy was jealous of the undeniable chemistry between Ororo and Clark. She noticed how Clark would occasionally glance in Ororo's direction with a familiar look of longing and regret etched in his handsome face. She remembered that the two had shared a kiss years before, and it was very probable that the two had some unresolved romantic feelings for one another. Her thoughts were interrupted as another masculine voice coming over the mike abruptly interrupting Anna's and Remy's bickering.

"Are you two finish playin' hanky panky, or do you rather the rest of us listen to your incessant and pointless chatter?" Logan asked sounding annoyed.

The sound of teeth being sucked rudely came as a response to Wolverine's snarl.

"You don't always have to be a drag, Logan. Some of us like to step out of intense mode every once in a while. Maybe you should try it," Anna said wickedly.

"Woman don't make me," Logan stopped mid sentence in his warning as his ears perked up hearing the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Security is startin' to get suspicious. Mo' men are commin' up to dis floor and it won't be long befo'-"

Before Remy could finish his warning he was cut off abruptly and Chloe had a feeling he was occupied with someone who had stumbled upon his presence in the mansion. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the other guards radioed in to account for their unconscious comrades, and if she didn't hurry, Chloe feared that they would be discovered. Glancing down at the computer screen anxiously, she saw that she had forty seconds left before the downloading of the data off the hard drive was completed. Moments later the transaction had just barely been completed when hearing the knob of the office turn caused Chloe to freeze. She knew that whoever was about to walk through the door wasn't Remy or Logan because they were occupied keeping guard on the far other sides of the mansion. Moving quickly, she snatched the thumb drive out of the computer before putting the computer into sleep mode and hiding down behind the pool table for cover.

Seconds later the door opened an a leggy red head woman walked into the office talking on her cell.

"I told you not to call me unless it was important. I plan on being back at the lab in an hour. What the hell could you possibly be calling me about that you can't wait to tell me until I get back?" she snapped irritably as she headed towards the desk where Chloe had previously been perched behind.

Chloe frowned as she recognized the woman's voice from the horrible days she had spent a prisoner locked away two days ago in an abandoned facility in the middle of nowhere. Oliver had identified the cold woman as being a former acquaintance of his named Tess Mercer. For some reason it didn't surprise the blond that Tess had access to Lex's home at such a late hour. It made perfect sense seeing how the woman seemingly had taken complete charge of all of Lex's affairs after the billionaire's untimely disappearance.

Suddenly the sound of something shattering caused Chloe to peek around the pool table curiously. The woman had just knocked a vase filled with full bloomed roses from it's mantle and onto the ground with a look of rage on her face.

"Damn it! How could you have let something like this happen? I want that doctor caught and bought to me alive. I am personally going to make him pay for crossing me. As for you and your men, if you value your lives you will do everything in your power to find Lex and bring him back. Am I clear?" she snapped slamming the flip phone shut not giving the person on the other end of the line a chance to respond.

Chloe's jaws dropped as she couldn't believe what she was hearing! Lex was alive? Against all odds, he had actually survived the collapse of the fortress!The revelation left her both amazed and in fear. If Lex could survive something so devestating as the collapse of the ice palace, was there anything that could kill him?

The woman was obviously too angry to focus on whatever it was that she had come to the office for in the first place and stormed out seething with the sound of her heels clicking against the wooden floor echoing in her retreat.

Before Chloe could ponder on the matter any further, she heard the window behind her open signaling that another intruder was preparing to enter the office. Moving quickly, she place the thumb drive in her pocket before slowly walking towards the door. As she reached for the knob, she froze as she heard the voices of guards coming from the other side of the door. Not wanting to risk being caught, she backed away and flattened her back against the darkest corner of the room. Before she could alert the others of her situation, a voice came through in the mike.

"Did she say what I think she said? Lex is alive?" Oliver's astonished voice buzzed in her ear.

Chloe heard Oliver's question but she couldn't bring herself to answer him. She was still stunned that he had managed to survive. What was even more confusing was that a doctor that wasn't obviously in Lex's inner circle had kidnapped Lex and apparently holding him for some unknown reason. She couldn't believe things had taken a turn from absolutely bad to worse. Not only did they now have to worry about closing down the 3.11 warehouses, but now they had to track Lex and stop him before he exposed Clark's secret to the world.

"Chlo? Are you there, gal?" Anna's worried voice rang in her ear.

The blond bit her bottom lip as she began to weigh her options. If Clark knew that Lex was alive then he would no doubt confront him. The problem was that Chloe wasn't sure that Clark had what it take to permanently rid society of Lex Luthor. Suddenly a thought struck her that made her eyes widen. If she took care of Lex herself then Clark wouldn't have the chance to let Lex off the hook and

"Guys, keep your panties on. I'm here," she whispered into the mike as her mind raced to find an suitable and discreet exit out of the office

"Clark is going to freak," Oliver started.

"Yes, about that... I think it's best if we keep the news about Lex being alive between us," she said hastily.

Their was a long pause.

"When you say keep it between us, you mean keep it from Clark?" Oliver asked confused.

"Clark won't be able to do what you and I both know is necessary. That's why I plan on handling this myself with a few other

Chloe rolled her eyes as she opened her mouth explaining her reasoning patiently while keeping a sharp eye for any guard who might pose as a problem as she tried to figure out a way to make her way towards the meet up spot where she pre planned to meet Logan and Remy.

She wanted to discuss the issue more in depth to convince Oliver and Anna to go along with her plan, however she knew she had a more important issue at hand. Someone was comming through the window and she couldn't leave out the office because she heard several guards yelling and scrambling to regain order and security over the mansion. She knew that if she didn't do something quick that she risking getting caught.

Starring at the window upstairs outside of the library, she suddenly got an idea. If there was someway she could out on the ledge, she could make her escape and no one would ever know that she had been there.

She was halfway towards the stairs that led to the second floor of Lex's office when she suddenly froze feeling something hard and cold pressed tightly to the center of her back. It was too dark too see who her captor was standing behind her, but she had a feeling that whoever it was planned on taking what she had whether she cooperated or not.

"Thanks for finding the information I need. If you don't mind before you leave, you can hand it over."

* * *

At the Daily Planet, Kitty, Clark and Ororo had walked into the dark and abandoned newspaper building easily and was currently in Lex's office hacking into his computer. While Kitty worked her hacking magic, Clark and Ororo began to wander around the office looking for other things that would help them in their investigation.

Ororo walked over to the desk and began to rummage through the drawer looking for anything that would help them in their investigation and she paused as she came across a small photograph sticking out the back of an address book. Reaching down with a slightly trembling hand, she picked up to find it was a picture Lex had of himself and Lana in his desk drawer making her chest tightened slightly. His cold and emotionless face was a stark contrast to the warm smiling beautiful woman standing next to him. Seeing his face bought back a time in her life where he had nearly caused her to destroy and kill a town of innocent people. She felt bile rise in her throat as she remembered that monster had actually put his mouth on hers and tried to take her sexually while she had been under his control. While she had eventually moved on from what he did to her, she knew that she would never forget. She would make sure Lex would never have another chance to hurt anymore innocent people if it was the last thing that she did.

Kitty noticed the look of intensity on the other woman's face and grew concern.

"Is everything alright, Storm?" she asked gently.

Ororo snapped out of her thoughts and smiled down at the brunette reassuringly.

"Everything is fine, Kitten," she murmured.

Unable to look at the photograph any longer, she placed it back in the drawer before she glanced over at Clark only to find him in deep thought. His raven black hair was combed back sleekly and his handsome face was fixed with concentration. Suddenly he began to speak quietly.

"I can't explain it but I just have this feeling that Lex is alive out there and waiting for the perfect opportunity to try control me again. I should have never let it happen the first time. If it happens a second time," he trailed off sounding angry and helpless.

Ororo reached over and placed her hand on his arm comfortingly. She could tell that he was internally beating himself up for allowing Lex to come so close to what could have ended in complete disaster.

"Do you really think that there is a possibity that Lex could have survived the collapsing of the fortress? Despite the fact that he is evil personified, he is still just a man made of flesh and blood," she said softly, "I honestly do not see how someone could survive something so horrific."

He nodded.

"Maybe," he murmured before glancing around the room with his eyes narrowed almost suspiciously.

As she watched him curiously, it seemed as if he was looking very intently for something. Before she could wonder any longer, Clark's eyes widened in discovery.

"There is a room behind that bookshelf," he exclaimed after using his X ray vision to stare through the wall.

Immediately Clark and Ororo went to work trying to find one of the books that would reveal the room. As they ran their fingers lightly across the spine's of the books looking for one that might provide them entry, they weren't paying attention and nearly bumped heads. Ororo smiled apologetically while Clark blushed lightly. Looking down he noticed their fingers were touching and he felt a small spark dance through him as he shyly stared down at her.

"The Art of War," she murmured amused as she tugged on the book.

"Well _that _wasn't predictable," Kitty sang sarcastically shaking her head before refocusing on her task at hand.

Seconds later, the bookshelf made a grinding sound softly before sliding open revealing a small room with several random objects inside along with a safe.

Clark smirked in response.

"Lex has always had a flair for dramatic irony," he chuckled softly as he crossed the threshold and followed Ororo into the secret room.

Ororo swallowed nervously as she lingered near the entrance of the room hesitant to enter. Clark looked over his shoulder and stared at her puzzled before he realize what was bothering her. The room was a pretty small and closed space and he knew that she was fearing going inside because of her life long ailment of being claustrophobic.

"You don't have to," he started.

She shook her head stubbornly.

"I am fine," she said quietly before following him into the room.

On the walls of the room were ancient swords and expensive looking weapons and different keep sakes Lex had gathered from his many trips around the globe. Clark felt his heart sink in his stomach as he found several carvings of Kryptonian symbols carved into a few of the weapons. As Clark slowly made his way around the room, he felt confusion set in.

Why would Lex keep such valuable items in a low secured place such as his office? He knew Lex liked to keep items he treasured the most in the world close to him, but it was almost as if Lex was thinking he was gaining security by hiding the things in plain sight. Clark went to explore deeper into the room when a hauntingly familiar ringing began to buzz in his ear and before he knew it he was beginning to feel increasingly sick to his stomach. Grunting softly, he clutched his midsection as he fell down to one knee as his vision began to blur and his head began to swim. Almost immediately Ororo was by his side with worry and fear etched across her beautiful dark face.

"Clark, what is it? What's wrong?" she demanded concerned and frightned at the sudden and abrupt change in his health status.

He reopened his eyes slowly with much difficulty to find Kitty standing behind Ororo towering over him with worry and anxiety in her big brown eyes. He opened his mouth trying to explain, but instead cried out softly as he felt another wave of intense and excruciating pain flood over him. Closing his eyes once more, he forced himself to breathe slowly so that he could explain to Ororo the reason behind his collapse. There was only one thing that could ever cause him to be in this much discomfort and crippling pain.

Ororo felt her heart race rapidly as she started to panic, but she knew if she was going to help Clark, she would have to stay calm. Inhaling sharply, she pressed the X on her chest firmly, activating her communicator.

"Watch tower, this is Storm. Something is terribly wrong with Clark. He is hurt and I do not have the slightest clue what is ailing him," she informed over the mic, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.

Seconds later Oliver responded calmly.

"Storm, this is the Green Arrow. If Clark is hurt there is only one explanation for it. There has to be Kryptonite somewhere near by," Oliver said automatically, his voice deep with great concern for his friend, "It's a green meteor rock and you have to find it fast before his condition gets worse."

Ororo's deep blue eyes widened with horror. Kryptonite was Clark's weakness, and she knew that if she didn't find the source of it soon, Clark could go from bad to dangerously worse.

_"Why would he be keeping this in his office at work? What purpose could he possibly have for it here?"_ she wondered confused.

Shaking her head, the weather witch pushed the thoughts out of her head deciding she would contemplate it later. Right now she had to find the source of Clark's distress before he got any worse. Starring down at him she felt her heart lurch in his chest as she watched helplessly as he laid powerless at her feet. She wanted nothing more then to hold him untill the pain faded away but she knew that wouldn't do him any good so instead she forced herself to focus as she began to scan the room looking for the Kryptonite.

As she walked deeper into the room, she could her chest tightening as she realized that at any moment the door could shut trapping them inside. She knew her fear was unreasonable seeing how Kitty could easily phase her through the wall back into the open part of Lex's office, but she still felt uncomfortable being inside the small area. Swallowing back her fear, she narrowed her eyes with determination and continue to scan the room looking for the meteor rock. Behind her she could hear Clark's breathing becoming more shallow and she realized that she was quickly running out of time.

Ororo searched the walls slow and deliberate and her eyes finally rested on a ancient looking silver dagger that had a green stone pulsating in the middle of it. She grabbed the beautifully crafted weapon and placed it in a led box sitting on the mantle below it, before shutting and locking it firmly. After she had secured the Kryptonite she rushed back to Clark's side to check on his status. Within seconds, Clark's color began to return back to his face and his breathing began to stabilize.

"Wow! It seems so strange how something that looks so beautiful and harmless can bring down the strongest man in the universe," Kitty murmured looking on in disbelief.

Clark laughed weakly as he made his way to his feet with Ororo's help and stumbled out of the secret room securing the door behind him.

"Yeah, that and certain women," he joked as he found the strength to become fully vertical once again.

As Kitty returned to gathering the information she needed from the computer, her curiosity convinced her to sneak a quick glance over the top of the computer screen over across the room where Clark and Ororo were standing close together. Even though they weren't touching, the mere looks thier were giving each other was causing electricity to sizzle subtly in the atmosphere. A slow smile spread across the phaser's face. She had a feeling that the two were going to have to confront their lingering feelings for each other and when it happened, Kitty was willing to bet their would be fireworks so extreme that it would make Jubilee's abilities look like child's play.

"Clark?" Ororo said amused.

Clark quickly snapped out of his trance with a light blush coloring his cheek. He realized that while he had been in lost in thought, he had missed something that Ororo had said.

"I'm sorry...I was distracted," he smiled sheepishly.

"Are you sure you are alright?" she prodded still worried about his health.

"Ororo, it's ok. I'm fine. I promise," he reassured warmly.

The wind rider finally smiled convinced, and Clark returned her smile warmly. Once again he found himself trapped starring deep into her azure colored eyes. He could admit that he secretly found her utterly sexy wearing her white mane pulled back into a tight ponytail with black leather hugging her every curve. He couldn't help but feel the strong sting of regret that she was engaged to Remy. All the lingering and unforgotten feelings that he had for her didn't matter anymore. She was happy and he respected that. He wanted what was best for her and if it was Remy...then so be it. Before he could contemplate the matter any futher, a soft gasp of glee erupted from Kitty's lips, drawing his attention curiously.

"Finished," the brunette declared victoriously, rising from the computer chair with a triumphant look on her face.

"Already?" Clark asked surprised as he and Ororo walked over to the desk and joined the phaser behind the computer.

Kitty grinned nodding enthusiastically.

"It was totally piece of cake," she said with a self satisfied smile as she flipped her brunette hair over her shoulder reveling in the fact of Clark's obvious being impressed with her work.

Ororo smiled proudly.

"Kitten is very good at what she does," she complimented the teenager who blushed in return.

Clark smiled relieved. He was happy that everything went so smoothly and they didn't have the misfortune of running into complications other then the impromptu meeting with the dreaded meteor rock.

"Once we get the data back to the farm we can go over it and find what we need to put a stop to Lex's madness," he said eagerly.

Kitty reached down to grab the thumb drive from the side of computer when something fluttered across the screen that caught her eye. Suddenly the brunette's smile disappeared from her lips and in it's place was a frown that caused Ororo to become concerned. Apparently whatever Kitty had been looking at caused her a certain amount of distress and Ororo got the sinking feeling that it was something that was going to be entirely unpleasant.

"What is it, Shadowcat? What's wrong? she asked quietly.

Katherine looked up gravely. Suddenly she wished that she hadn't celebrated so early about her skills. It wasn't very often that she hated her extra curricular job as a hacker, and that moment was one of the rare times that she really wished that she wasn't as good as she was.

"I think that there is something you both might need to see and I don't think it can wait until we get back to the farmhouse," she said softly.

Exchanging confused glances, Ororo and Clark looked over her shoulder down at the brightly lit screen.

"I found this heavily encrypted and while I was waiting for all the other things to download and somehow I manage to break the code within a couple of minutes," she mumbled before getting up from the chair so that Clark and Ororo could a better glimpse of what was on the computer screen.

"What are we looking at?" Ororo asked confused.

"This is a list of people that Lex compiled a bunch of private information that ties in with the some of the things and people involved with the Project 3.11," she said softly.

Glancing over the list, Ororo felt an startled gasp escape her lips, and Clark felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. He couldn't believe his eyes and as quickly as his shock had surged, it was replaced by intense anger seconds later. On the top of the list was a very familiar name. It was no one other then his mother...

Martha Kent.


	16. Chapter 16

"I'm not going to tell you again, lady. Hand over the information and you won't get hurt," the intruder demanded pressing an hard object harder into Chloe's lower back.

_Think, Chloe, think...you have to find some way out of this...._

Chloe stood rooted in her spot as her mind race searching for a way to get away from the intruder. She knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep the thumb drive from getting out of her possession, but she was hoping that she would stay alive and uninjured in the process. Smiling nervously she decided since she was physically outmatched due to the fact she had something shoved in her back and she was weaponless, that she wouldn't try to get physical with the intruder. She could hear Oliver and Anna radioing for her desperately in her ear piece, but she knew it would be unwise to respond to them, so she remained silent.

_Where's Gambit and Wolverine when you need them? _she wondered miserably.

"Listen, whoever you are. I didn't find anything in here that you would be interested in. In my honest opinion, I think that we both should get the hell out of here before more guards come," she tried reasoning.

"What do you think I am? Stupid? I said hand over the information. This is the last time I'm going to ask you nicely," they growled growing impatient.

A look of surprise flashed across Chloe's face as she suddenly realized that she recognized the voice of the person standing behind her attempting to retrieve the thumb drive. No longer afraid, she whirled around and her eyes widened as she came face to face with her cousin Lois. Something heavy suddenly dropped the ground and Chloe look down to see her cousin's choice of weapon lying on the floor. Her surprised turned into amusement as she ticker a closer look at the sleek black object and saw that it was nothing more then an office stapler.

"Chloe? What the hell are you doing here?" the brunette demanded, "I could have hurt you!"

The last part of Lois statement made Chloe grin highly amused.

"Hurt me? With a stapler?" Chloe asked laughing softly.

"Don't laugh too hard, Chloe. Just with the proper amount of force and the right spot to the skull, a stapler could be a very deadly weapon," Lois warned flushing.

"Is it me or have you've been watching way too much CSI?" the blond taunted amused.

Lois smirked.

"As far as your life is concerned, I I feel like my life as of lately has become an CSI episode, but let's get back to the matter at hand. Do you mind telling me why the hell am I running into you right now?" she asked bluntly.

"I am here trying to find out where exactly Lex Luthor is. A billionaire dosen't disappear of the face of the earth without a reason," Chloe explained quickly.

Lois glared at her obviously not pleased with her answer.

"Snooping around the house of the guy who had you kidnapped you is not the best of ideas, Chloe! Does Olsen even know that you're here?" Lois demanded, "He would freak out if he knew that you were still put yourself in harm's way after everything you have just been through!"

Chloe felt her heart race at the mention of her fiance'. Jimmy had wanted to have an intimate dinner with her that evening, but she had reluctantly declined after she learned that Clark and his friends had needed her help. Chloe sighed heavilly knowing that her cousin had a point. If Jimmy knew that she wasn't catching up with house cleaning like she told him and instead was snooping around in Lex's office, he would most likely blow a gasket. A part of her felt bad for lying, but she knew she had to lie in order to protect the people she care about. It came along with the job of constantly having to play sidekick to Clark. Suddenly Chloe was struck with a curious question. Why was Lois snooping around Lex's mansion in the middle of the night? Usually her outspoken cousin would have told her if she was on some big truth discovery mission, but Lois hadn't even breathed a peep which was highly unusual for the sharp tongued reporter.

"Wait a minute. What are you doing here? You didn't say you were working on a Luthor based story for the newspaper," Chloe stated suspciously with her arms folded across her chest as she leveled her gaze at her cousin with one of her blonde eyebrows arched slightly.

"I was actually here trying to find hard evidence that will expose the true Lex Luthor, that we all have come to hate and despite. to the rest of the world. Seeing how he kidnapped you and hasn't shown his face ever since made me suspcious and I want him bought to justice for taking you against your will," she said seriously.

It touched Chloe that Lois was willing to go to the extreme to bring down a tyrant like Lex, but she quickly remembered that this was not the time nor place to waste time on sentimental things. She could hear several footsteps echoing against the carpeted floor outside of the office, and Chloe knew that at any moment her and Lois would be caught by the guards and that was not something the blond wanted to risk at the moment.

"As much as I appreciate the guesture of you trying to avenge me, we can talk about this later. Right now we need to find a way to get out of here before we are caught," she hissed before making a beeline towards the closed office door. Halfway there the door flew open and reacting quickly both girls turned to flee in the opposite direction when the sound of a gun cocking made them stop.

"Hey, you two! Stop right there," a guard shouted pointing a handgun at them angrily.

Instinctively Lois stood in front of her cousin protectively as she stared down the guard evenly. She knew that if she didn't come up with a plan fast, then she and Chloe would be suffering through a repeat of Lex's twisted fondness of holding people prisoner's against their will. Forcing herself not show her fear, she put on her most charming smile she took an non threatening step towards the guards.

"Let me assure you guys that this is all just a huge misunderstanding. Why don't you put the gun down so we can talk about this calmly? I would like to think that we are all reasonable people," she laughed nervously.

"Hey, I know you," the guard said suddenly, "You're that snooping investigative reporter that works at the Daily Planet. Ms. Mercer is going to be very interested to learn that you had broken into Lex's home."

Lois and Chloe exchanged an nervous look before they slowly began to realize this situation was getting worse by the moment.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble. We just want to leave," Lois said desperately as she grabbed Chloe's hand and tried to maneuver around the two strange men standing in thier path.

"You move again and I will shoot you and I won't ask quetions later," he promised stiffly as he and two other guards slowly began to advance towards the two women.

Suddenly Chloe noticed two shadows moving behind the three guards and she felt a surge of hope course through her as she realized that her salvation was about to intervene in the form of a very angry looking Wolverine and a smirking Gambit.

"I don't think you want to do that, bub," a cold masculine voice emerged from the darkness behind the guard.

"Who the hell are you?" the guard demanded agitated as he turned and leveled.

"Don't worry, mon ami. You will find out soon enough," Remy promised slyly as he held a ace of space between his index finger and thumb that was glowing a fushia pink.

"What are you? Some kind of some meteor freak?" the guard asked hatefully.

The guard raised his gun with his finger firmly on the trigger, but it was too late. Logan sprang forward and grabbed the man slamming him hard across a wall causing him to go unconscious and slump to the floor. As the other two guards rushed forward to attack, Remy threw the glowing card at the book shelf beside them causing it to explode and shower the men with splintered wood and jagged boards. The men laid unconscious beneath mounds and mounds of books. Lois stared at the scene with her mouth hanging open slightly. Remy walked over and knelt next to the motionless men with a grin on his face. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the joker card from the deck and placed it on one of the men's chest.

"Knowledge is power, mon ami. Y' would do well t' remember dat in de future," Remy chuckled before rising back a vertical position once more.

"Are you gals alright?" Remy asked walking over to them with concern shining in his dark eyes.

Lois tensed as she backed away from the men suspiciously. Just when she didn't think the night could get any worse these two men showed up. She began to wonder if there was anyone around that wasn't trying to infiltrate Lex's mansion and she had a feeling that after tonight, the security team were going to have to

"Stay the hell away from us or I swear that I will deliver an incredible kind of pain on you that you never have experienced," Lois warned, her hazel green eyes flashing dangerously.

Lois and Remy stared at the brunette confused and highly amused while Chloe laughed softly.

"Lois, relax. These men aren't going to hurt us. They are with me," she explained amused.

Lois brown eyes widened with surprise and confusion. Starring at the two guys she found it hard to believe that her cousin was hanging around with a guy who looked like he could break concrete straight down the middle with his bare hands, and a guy who looked like he stepped straight off a magazine for poster bad boys.

"Trust me. It's a long story. I will explain later, but right now we should probably get out of her before more guards come along," she said quickly.

As the foursome made their way down the hall towards the window leading to their escape, Chloe felt that it was only proper to make a brief introduction between her cousin and her two super powered companions. However before she could open her mouth to begin, Lois interrupted.

"Who are these guys?" Lois demanded.

Chloe laughed amused.

"I was actually just getting to that, Lo. Lois, this is Logan and Remy. Guys, this is my cousin, Lois," she said.

Logan grunted his version of a polite greeting, while Remy grinned before stepping closer to her openly admiring her beauty. Even though Chloe was a pretty girl in her own right, Lois was completely stunning. He let his eyes wander down from her beautiful radiant face, down to her curvy body that was hugged tightly in a snug fitting all black cat suit.

"See somethin' you like cowboy?" she murmered with her bottom lip tucked gently between her front two pearly white teeth.

Remy smirked and wanted to tell her yes, but he knew that would be more the inappropriate and he decided to keep his inner thoughts to himself. Instead he put on his most charming of smiles and closed the distance between him and Lois and stopping once he was towering over her causing her to blush deeply.

"Let Remy jus' say it's his pleasure t' meet you, cherie," he murmured before taking her hand and brushing her knuckles lightly with his lips.

Lois smiled flustered. While she found it rather odd that this really cute guy referred to himself in the third person, she

"The pleasure is all mine, Bayou," she grinned flirtatiously.

Chloe saw the looks being exchanged between the two and rolled her eyes amused. It was obvious that despite having a gorgeous woman like Ororo, Remy had wandering eyes. She watched incredulously as Lois did something she rarely saw her .....she blushed.

"Don't feel to pleasured, Lo. He's engaged," she informed with a smirk.

Lois pouted prettily as she sighed disappointed. It was just her luck that one of the most gorgeous men that she had ever laid eyes on was already spoken for.

"That's too bad," she murmured starring at the cajun with a devious gleam in her eyes.

Chloe cleared her throat abruptly breaking the spell that fell between Lois and Remy.

"As much as I would love to stay here and chat it up with your two amazingly hot friends, I have to get ready for work tomorrow," Lois said wistfully.

"Are you sure you are okay to go home alone?" Chloe asked gently.

Lois rolled her eyes amused.

"I wouldn't exactly say I _want _to go home alone," she started casting an lustful look in both Remy and Logan's direction, "However I have a deadline to complete before tomorrow."

"Do you want me to give you a lift back to the apartment?" Chloe offered.

Lois shook her head.

"I appreciate that, but I have my car parked near the woods about an half a mile away from here plus there a couple of places I need to stop before I actually head home," she informed.

Chloe didn't feel comfortable with letting Lois run off into the night alone, but she knew how stubborn and head strong her cousin could be, so she didn't even bother putting up a protest.

"Okay, but call me when you get home so that I know you made it there alright," Chloe directed firmly.

Lois smiled tenderly. Even though she was the oldest of the two, sometime

"I will," she promised.

The two cousin exchanged a quick embrace before Lois said a final goodbye to Logan and Remy before jogging off and disappearing under the cloak of darkness. Remy stared after her figure appreciatively. Even though he hated to see her leave, he loved to watch her walk away, or rather jog. He grunted softly as Logan brushed past him roughly the whole while casting him a dirty look in his direction. Flashing his most innocent smile he followed Logan and Chloe down the road where they had parked her car in a dark and concealed place near the tree line.

"Let's head back t' de farmhouse, shall we?"

************

Clark stormed into his house feeling panicked and angry as he searched for Chloe anxiously. After Oliver had informed him that Chloe had nearly been caught in at Lex's mansion with Lois, he had instantly dashed back with Kitty and Ororo desperate to make sure that both cousins were safe and sound. He was use to Lois putting herself in danger every time he would blink his eyes, but he was slightly agitated that her head strong ways had nearly compromised the mission. Clark knew that sooner or later he would have to have a serious discussion with Lois and her knack for getting herself into messes and scrapes without so much as even considering the consequences. As he walked into the living room with his two companions hot on his trail, he came face to face with Remy, Anna, Oliver, and Logan who were standing around talking quietly among themselves.

"Where is Chloe?" he demanded worried.

Before anyone could answer Chloe suddenly came around the corner. Her smile faded when she saw the anxious look on Clark's face. She knew that look all too well to know that Clark was not happy. Chloe knew that he no doubt heard about the close call that she and Lois had back at Lex's mansion and as usually became immediately concern.

"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked concerned as he immediatly rushed to her side examining her from head to toe making sure that she didn't have any injuries. She open her mouth to protest, but she knew that it was pointless, so she patiently stayed silent as Clark examined her closely. Thirty seconds later her patience wore thin and she pulled away narrowing her bright green eyes at him steadily.

"I'm fine, Clark," she tried.

"What about Lois?" he asked unconvinced.

"Lois is back at our apartment working on her new story about Lex's disappearance. That was why she was at Lex's office. Don't worry, Clark. She's safe," the blond reassured, "What did you guys find at the Daily Planet?"

"Other then Kryptonite?" Oliver sighed causing Chleo's curiousity to turn into concern.

"Kryptonite?" she asked horrified.

Ororo nodded gravely.

"Unfortunately, there was a hidden room in Lex's office in the Daily Plant and we found an dagger with a Kryptonite stone in the middle," she informed.

"Oh my god. Are you okay?" Chloe asked staring up at Clark concerned.

He nodded reassuringly.

"I'm fine. If it Ororo hadn't been there, I might not have come out of the situation so lucky," he admitted smiling at her warmly causing her to blush flattered.

Remy looked between Ororo and Clark and felt a familiar wave of annoyance and jealousy wash over him. He had a feeling that something much more happened in that office then they were letting on and he knew that Kitty wouldn't let the cat out of the bag to speak due to her personal loyalty towards the weather witch. Remy swallowed back his anger as he looked down at the floor trying to keep his temper in check. He wasn't an idiot and if Clark thought that he was going to try to steal Ororo from him in plain sight, the farm boy alien had another thing coming. Before he had the chance to consider how he was going to confront the other man who had eyes for Ororo, Clark began to speak again.

"There was something else, Chloe. There was a list on Lex's computer with the names of all the people involved in project 33.1, and my mother's name was on it," he said softly.

Chloe eyes widened startled. Questions began to fly through her mind almost as fast as the speed of light. Why would Martha Kent name be linked to Lex's torture factories? It made absolutely no sense at all to her.

"Clark, that's totally bizarre! Why would Lex have your mother's name on a list involving 33.1 affairs?" she asked startled.

The farm boy shrugged sadly.

"I don't know. The only reason I could think of is that Lex was black mailing my mother with my secret to help him," he said quietly.

Remy scoffed rudely.

"That doesn't sound likely," he said evenly, "I think there is a strong possibility that your mother is involved because of her past history with Lex Luthor."

"Remy, don't go there," Logan growled warningly.

Clark turned his steely glare on Remy with an angry expression etched deep into his handsome face.

"You have no idea as to what my mother's history with Lex was, but let me fill you in. Lex has done nothing but caused hell for my mother and so the idea that she is working with him on it's beyond ludicrous . It's just not possible," he said curtly.

The cajun snorted.

"Remy has seen cousins betray cousins, sisters betray brothers and best friends stab one another in de back. What's t' say dat your mother didn't betray you?" he asked bluntly.

Clark opened his mouth to speak but Ororo quickly interrupted him.

"You are wrong, Remy! I have met Martha personally and she would do any and everything to protect Clark. Whatever reason Mrs. Kent's name is on the list I am absolutely certain she has nothing to do Lex and his monstrous project," she said firmly.

Remy scoffed rudely.

"Of course you would say that," he grumbled.

Kitty frowned deeply.

"What is that suppose to mean, Gambit?" she asked narrowing her green eyes at the Cajun evenly.

"It means dat no one in dis room is botherin' t' be objective," No one is even lettin' the possibility that she could be guilty of working with Lex even run through their minds," he asked stiffly, with his arms folded across his chest.

Everyone stared at Remy completly stunned by his accusation.

"Sounds to me like you are letting jealousy rear it's ugly head swamp rat," Anna taunted slyly.

Remy glared at her sharply causing the smile to immediately disappear from her lips.

"Non, it sounds to Remy like Stormy is letting her feelings for Clark cloud her judgement," he retorted.

"Gumbo, you are way out of line. If Ororo believes Kent's mother is innocent of being involved with that slime ball Luthor, then it's not your place to question her judgement. Last time I checked, she is the leader of this team and it's your job to follow. So what don't you do us all a favor and just shut your trap and do your job," Logan snapped.

Slowly but surely the atmosphere in the room was becoming more and more rigid as tempers flared.

"Sorry, homme', but Remy ain't gonna blindly follow when he ain't exactly sure that Martha Kent is innocent-"

"Enough!" Ororo thundered angrily instantly causing the room to fall completely silent.

It was rare for anyone to see the windrider upset, and in that particular moment she was fuming. Her aquatic blue eyes were dark with anger and her small hands were clenched into tight fist hanging at her side.

"I am not speaking as your fiance' right now, Gambit. I am speaking as the leader of this team and I warn you that if you do not put aside your tiring pettiness this very instant, you can pack your bags and head back to Wenchester. Do I make myself clear?" she asked coldly.

"Crystal," he said haughtily before turning on his heels and storming out of the living room.

After the cajun's abrupt exit, the living room was left in complete silence. Logan glanced over to where Ororo was standing with her eyes closed and her beautiful dark face pinched with tension. He could smell all sorts of emotions rolling from her direction, but the strongest of the scents was anger and he couldn't blame her. Remy had no right to make the comments that he did involving Martha Kent when he wasn't sure if his accusation held any validation.

Clark suddenly cleared his throat softly before turning his attention towards Chloe.

"Did you find out anything about Lex where abouts?" Clark finally asked with the silence had went from being to awkward to downright uncomfortable.

"Yes."

"No."

Chloe and Oliver's answer came simultaneously and everyone stared at them confused. Logan didn't even have to use his sense of smell to know that the pair was lying and what was stranger, he got the vibe from Anna who was shifting uncomfortably in her spot near the fireplace that she knew exactly what Choe and her pal the Green Arrow were hiding. He watched closely as the two exchanged an nervous look and Chloe knew that if they didn't come up with something quick, the truth about Lex's survival would come out. Chloe was raking her mind for an explanation when Oliver quickly intervened.

"What Chloe and I meant to say is that we don't believe him to be alive. There was nothing on the flash drive to prove that he even survived the collapse of the fortress," he lied.

Clark sighed disappointed.

"Well maybe there is something on the thumb drives that we haven't discovered yet that might give us a lead to whether or not he is alive," he said his voice heavy with worry, "While you all turn in for the night, I'm going to surprise my mom with a visit and see if she can shed any light on any of this and see whether or not Lex has contacted her in the past few weeks."

As he turned to head to the front door, Ororo quickly followed him determine to have a private conversation about the whole incident that happened between him and Remy.

Hearing urgent footsteps rushing up behind him, Clark turned around and smiled when he came to face Ororo. She returned his smile apologetically.

"I am sorry about what Remy implied about your mother. He was out of line," she said somberly.

Clark shook his head and smiled sadly.

"He was just trying to be objective. I know that he didn't mean anything by it," he said quietly.

Ororo shook her head stubbornly inadvertently causing several white strands of her hair to come free from her loose ponytail.

"There is a difference between being objective and being cruel. Remy was being cruel. I assure you that he will never be that crass with you again," Ororo promised firmly.

Clark smiled warmly as he rested a hand on her forearm. Even though it had kinda pissed him off when Remy all but accused his mother of being in on Lex's executions of the warehouses spawned out of project 3.11, he wasn't going to show his anger. It was already bad enough that Ororo was pretty hot about the whole situation, and he didn't want to make it any worse by showing his true feelings so he decided to do what he did best when it came to soothing an upset woman. He flashed his most brightest smile and stared her directly in her beautiful blue eyes clouded over with distraught.

"I know that you are upset over with Remy said, but you have to understand that Remy might be feeling slightly insecure about this whole situation. I know from experience that jealousy and uncertainty makes people do and say things out of character. He just needs time to adjust to the situation and atmosphere. I think he'll come around," he reassured sincerely.

Ororo stared up at him admiration. Any other person would have been angry and disgusted if their mother had been accused of foul play out of spite, but Clark had an amazing level of understanding and tolerance.

"Thank you for being understanding," she murmured.

"No problem. I think that whatever reason my mother name is on that list will lead us closer to knowing everything Lex was planning with project 3.11," he said firmly.

"I'm going to take a trip to Washington and talk to her and see if I can make sense of any of this," he said softly.

"Tell her that I said hello," she murmured.

"I will. She will be happy to know that you have resurfaced again," he said warmly.

After one last smile, there was a gust of wind and Clark was gone. Yawning exhausted,Ororo was heading up to the guest room she was sharing with Remy when she was approached by Logan. Judging from the expression on his face, she could tell that something serious was weighing heavily on his mind. He had a cigar unlit perched in the corner of his mouth.

"There is something that I need to talk to you about, Ro," he said gruffly with an unreadable expression on his face.

Ororo nodded having a good feeling as to exactly what he wanted to discuss. After the whole scene involving Remy, there was no doubt in her mind that was going to try to give her some advice on how to handle both her professional duties as well as her personal ones.

"What is on your mind?" she asked softly.

"I have a feeling that there is something that costume boy, Chloe and Rogue ain't tellin us. Somethin' stinks and it stinks real bad," Logan warned in a low voice with suspicion etched deep in his rugged yet handsome face.

Ororo blinked startled. This was news to her. If it had been anybody else she would have insisted that they explain their reasoning behind such claims, but this was Logan. Due to his capabilities, Logan had t he uncanny ability to sense certain things when it came to the emotions of others.

"What do you mean there is something they are not telling us? We are all here to work together as a team for a common purpose. Why would anyone want to keep information from us?" she asked confused.

"I don't what it is exactly, but I noticed that those three got real nervous when Lex name was bought up, not to mention that they don't seem to have their story straight," he informed.

"Do you think there could be another angle that we are not seeing?" she asked worried.

"It's our job as the leaders of this team to keep an open mind to every possibility," he pointed out.

"If you are asking that do I think that it's possible for Chloe and Oliver to be involved in a sinister plan with Lex, I honestly do not think that they would be capable of such betrayal. They had been close confidant's and protectors of Clark for years. It would not make any sense for them to suddenly turn on him now," she protested.

"You mentioned that Chloe was kidnapped by Lex recently and that it was because of her advanced capabilities with technology that led to her having several of her own teammates captured, right?" he inquired gruffly.

"Right," Ororo confirmed getting the sinking feeling that she was not going to like the direction that the conversation was starting to head towards.

"What if Chloe wasn't being forced to give up the coordinates to the location of the squad members of her team? What if instead she was doing it willingly?" he asked suspciously.

Ororo shook her head in disbelief.

"That's simply not possible. Chloe told Clark that she had been persuaded to do what she did because she was given a powerful drug. The effects have worn off by now so if she was still working for the other side, I think we all would know," she said curtly.

"What I'm askin is how well do you really trust these people, Ro? I can't figure out what reason Anna would have to lie about anything, but Chloe and Oliver Twist knows more then they are letting on," he insisted.

"You honestly think that Chloe might be the hired hand of Lex?" Ororo asked incredulously, "That is completely absurd! Chloe is Clark's best friends and one of the people he trust the most. Chloe would die protecting him before she would ever do anything to help get him in Lex's power hungry clutches."

"Maybe Gumbo had a point. We should stay completely objective. If we are talking about preventing Clark from falling into the wrong hands and when it concerns power, I learned that you have to keep your eyes open and brace yourself for any possibility whether it means unexpected foes in the form of former allies," he advised sagely.

"Do you think my judgement is compromised by my previous relationship with Clark?" she asked.

"To be candid, I think that several things may be suffering due to your past with Clark, but your judgement is not one of those things," he assured.

Ororo sighed heavily and stared out at the starless night sadly. The thought of Remy made her heart heavy with remorse and sorrow. She regretted snapping on him in front of everyone, but she felt that she needed to defend Clark's mother against his base less accusations.

"Ro, not that it's any of my buisness, but is everything alright with you and Remy?" he asked gently.

Ororo nodded and smiled wearily.

"It is fine. There is nothing to worry about," she lied.

"Ro, you already know that I ain't the type who likes to stick my nose in others personal buisness, but after witnessing everything that happened earlier tonight with Gambit, I am really starting to have serious doubts whether he can function as a dependable member of this team.

"What do you think I should do?" she asked worried.

"I know that you are just speaking as my co captain, and I appreciate your candor

"I ain't just speakin' as your co captain, Ro. I am speakin as your friend," he said with a rare and compassionate smile as he rested his hand gently on her shoulder.

Ororo smiled

"I appreciate that as well. It is nice to know that we are at least seeing eye to eye for once. I will be fine, old friend. Remy will understand that my reprimand came as his leader, not his fiance. He surely cannot hold a grudge against me because I was simply doing my job," she said reasonably.

"Not to speak out of turn, darlin, but I think Gumbo thinks you being his leader and his fiance' is one in the same. He is starting to question your authority in front of the team as well as bring his personal feelings into a mission," he pointed out seriously.

"You are a smart woman, Ro. You know what you want and you know what you need. Don't let nothin' stand in the way of you getting it," he said

"I really appreciate your candor and your advice, my friend. Goodnight, Logan," she murmured.

He nodded and flashed an half smile in her direction.

"Goodnight, Ro."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter**

Ororo woke up the next morning blinking sleepily as sunlight poured through the bedroom window casting a beautiful golden glow throughout the room. As her crystal blue eyes peered through her thick, black eyelashes, her sensitive ears picked up the faint sound of laughter drifting from downstairs of the farm house indicating that several people in the house was already up and about starting their day. Glancing at the previously occupied spot next to her, she was sadden to see that Remy had already woken from his slumber and started his day without giving her his usual good morning kiss. The previous night she had spent with him had been one of the most tense and uncomfortable evenings she could ever remember sharing with her soon to be husband. She sighed heavily as she recalled that Remy had absolutely refused to speak to her, and instead of trying to coax a compromise between them as she would have normally hove done in the past, she had let him seethe in silence while she closed her eyes desperate to get some sleep for she had been completely exhausted from the activities of the night before.

Pushing the anxious thoughts of her fiance' to the back of her mind, she rolled out of bed and walked out of the bedroom across the hall into the bathroom where she was relieved to find that it was not occupied. As she stepped out of the shower twenty minutes later and began slipping on her tight denim jeans and hunter green button up blouse, Ororo smelled a delicious scent wafting through the air that caused her stomach to grumble impatiently. It was the universal yet almost unfamiliar smell of a well put together meal by a seasoned chef. Judging from the different scents, she could smell eggs, toast, apple pastries, hash browns, and bacon. Smiling eagerly, she pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail before she slipped on her flip flops and made her way down to the kitchen. Breezing through the open wide door frame, she smiled warmly as she softly greeted the kitchens occupants including Kitty, Anna, and Logan who were all busy trying to fix a plate.

"Good morning, everyone. Has anyone seen Remy?" she asked casually as she grabbed a fresh roll of bread out of the bread basket before pouring herself a glass of what appeared to be freshly squeezed orange juice.

Anna laughed amused.

"Sure have, sugah. He's outside on the porch sulkin' like a wounded dog," she smirked as she shoveled a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

Ororo looked out the nearest window and spotted her fiance' sitting on the porch swing smoking a cigarette with his back towards her. She could tell from the tension in his posture that he was still visibly upset and seething from what had happened the night before. She had every intention of stepping outside to smooth things over, but before she had the chance to even make a step in the direction of the exit of the kitchen, Anna stood up and beat her to the punch. Ororo wasn't exactly sure, but she got the suspicion that Anna was actually taking pleasure in the fact that she and Remy were momentarily on the outs with one another. Ororo knew that there was the possibility that she was being over paranoid after what the conversation she had the previous night with Logan, but she couldn't shake the vibe that Anna in fact was hiding something behind her innocent yet deceptive smile. Before she could think anymore on the matter, Chloe suddenly breezed into the kitchen with a smile on her face as she made a beeline towards the coffee machine. She was donned in silky midnight blue blouse with a beige light sweater, denim jeans and brown leather fashionable cow girl boots.

"Good morning everyone," she greeted cheerfully as she poured herself coffee into a teal blue mug that she had retrieved out of the cabinet, "Sorry I can't stay and dine with you all. I have alot of crazy errands to run in Metropolis."

"Good morning, Chloe. Have you seen Clark by any chance?" Ororo asked curiously.

Chloe nodded as she took a careful drink of her hot beverage and grabbed a bran muffin out of the homemade basket off of the counter. She had just finished talking to Clark and they had mostly discussed his mother and his mission for the day which was to take a four man team to take down all the 33.1 warehouses that they had found on the lists they recovered from Lex's files.

"Actually he just arrived back ten minutes ago. Apparently right before Lex had went completly psycho, he had went to Martha Kent and tried to enlist her help in project 3.11 by black mailing her with Clark's secret in exchange for her voice in the Senate. Martha had agreed to go along with it and informed Clark that she kept it from him to protect him," she said shaking her head disgusted.

Everyone sitting in the kitchen gasped in dismay except Logan who's expression remained the same. It didn't surprise Logan that Lex had stooped to that particular level of low after learning everything the power lusting billionaire had done in the past. As the others in the kitchen began to murmur amongst themselves worried, Logan quietly observed Oliver who was standing near the stove alone chewing on an apple silently, while Chloe nursed her freshly brewed coffee lovingly. He didn't have to sniff to pick up the scent that they were definitely hiding something from the rest of them. Suddenly Kitty sucked her teeth breaking the silence that had fallen over the kitchen.

"That's it. That man is going down," she said with steely determination in her voice.

"There is not any doubt about that, kitten. Les is utterly detestable," Ororo said angrily.

"I agree with you, Ro, but the good news is that now that Lex is missing in action, Kent's ma ain't gonna have to worry about being controlled by that bastard which means the government is as safe as it's going to be for the time being," Logan pointed out.

Ororo was about to respond when she noticed Chloe slowly inching out the kitchen door seemingly not wanting to be noticed. Pushing back her half eaten breakfast, the weather witch politely excused herself before rising from the table and following Chloe briskly. The blond was reaching for the door handle when Ororo called out to her softly.

Chloe turned around and stared at the windrider curiously.

"What's up?" she asked casually.

"You seem to be in quite a hurry this beautiful morning, Chloe. Is there something pressing that you are trying to see though?" Ororo asked curiously as she tried to carefully disguise the suspicion she felt churning up deep inside her gut. She didn't want Chloe to realize that she was becoming less curious and more suspicious about her behavior. After the conversation that she had with Logan, she had decided to pay closer attention to Chloe's actions to see if she could detect any deceit. Even though she felt horrible and immensely guilty for distrusting the blond, Ororo couldn't help but feel that Logan's warning carried some truth to it.

Chloe smiled easily.

"I was just heading into Metropolis to handle some things," she said casually.

"Would you like some company? " Ororo offered kindly.

"I appreciate the offer to help, but I promise you that everything I have to do is pretty boring," Chloe assured.

"Why do you not enlighten me? I am not an woman easily bored, " Ororo pressed putting on more pressure.

Chloe shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other nervously. The truth was that she was going to the city to follow up a lead on a possible sighting of the doctor who had abducted Lex from Tess Mercer, and she was more then anxious to question her source. However she had a problem, and that problem came in the form of the regal African goddess like woman standing in front of her. Chloe knew that she couldn't ditch the Ororo without drawing suspicion to herself, so she decided to agree to let her accompany her. As she racked her mind figuring out a way to keep Ororo distracted from finding out the truth about what she truly was about to do, an idea sprang to her mind.

"The thing is that....Jimmy and I had just gotten engaged and I haven't really told anyone yet. Not even Clark. I was just going to sneak off to Metropolis to discuss some last minute plans for the engagement party we are suppose to have later tonight," she lied convincingly.

Ororo's face instantly lit up happily. She had no idea! Clark had never uttered a word of Chloe even seeing someone seriously. Suddenly Ororo felt guilty for being so suspicious that Chloe had been hiding something paramount to their mission when the younger woman had just been simply hiding the fact that she was secretly betrothed.

"Oh my goddess! That is wonderful news, Chloe. Congratulations," she exclaimed hugging the other woman warmly.

Chloe blushed lightly as she returned the other woman's embrace. A small part of her felt terribly bad for lying to Ororo, but she didn't have any other option. If the weather wielding woman found out that Lex was alive, then she would immediately inform Clark and the chances of Chloe and Oliver actually getting rid of Lex permanently would be damn near next to nothing. That wasn't a risk that she was willing to take, so Chloe felt if she needed to lie to see that the end goal was achieved, then she would lie and let her conscious nag at her later.

"I am absolutely thrilled that you have found complete happiness. This Jimmy Olsen is a very lucky man and I hope that he realizes that," Ororo murmured sincerely.

Chloe blushed deeply was about to reply when the sound of the screen door opening paused the conversation as Remy came walking in. There was a long piercing silence as the tall handsome Cajun stopped walking abruptly and frowned as he stared neutrally at Ororo. Chloe could practically feel the intense waves of strong emotions passing between the silent brooding couple. Seeing that she was only in the way, Chloe decided to remove herself from between the two couple so that they could have their privacy.

As she stepped out of the door and on to the pourch, Chloe could hear Remy and Ororo's angered voices fueding softly:

_"Can we not just put this behind us, Etinne? I do not wish for there to be such hostility between us," Ororo pleaded._

_"How can Remy jus' put behind him dat y' made a complete fool of him last night, cherie?" he retorted, hurt evident in his deep southern drawl._

_"For Goddess sake, Remy! You were wrong! It was very inappropriate and unprofessional for you to make claims for which you had no proof of," she protested._

_"You chose to defend Clark over me! What kind o' loyalty is dat?" Remy exploded._

Seconds later Ororo slowly emerged from the house with a look of devastation etched across her pretty dark face.

"I know that it is none of my buisness, but is everything ok?" Chloe asked gently as she notice the deep sadness lurking in the other woman's aquatic blue eyes.

Ororo smiled faintly. Usually she was a very private person, especially when it came to her romantic affairs, but at the moment she desperately needed someone to talk to. The situation between her and Remy was growing more volatile with each passing moment, and Ororo knew that if something didn't give soon, there was going to be a pretty emotional explosion between them.

"I am sure that you can recall that rather nasty little scene that took place between Remy and I last night that we are kind of...tense with one another. In retrospect I know that I should have not been so severe with him. Especially not in front of everyone else. I just felt that I had to protect Clark from Remy's childish attacks," she explained softly.

Chloe felt her heart go out to the other woman in sympathy. It saddened her to know that the main reason that the couple was at odds with each other was because of Ororo's close friendship with Clark.

"You really care about him, don't you?" Chloe asked softly in admiration.

Ororo blushed lightly, something she was rarely accustomed to doing. There was a time where she had been adept to hiding her emotions, but as the years had grown on her, she was slowly letting different feelings and emotions become commonly seen on her face whether it was something that excited and made her happy, or whether it angered or made her angry.

"Yes. He does mean alot to me. I find that there is no greater bond to share with a man then the bonds of friendship. There is something very refreshing to be able to go through a trying and intense experience with someone and then be able to be connected to them long after the danger is over. You will be surprise that even though a person may have had a brief history together that some kind of emotional ties will linger," Ororo murmured with a deep smile on her pretty dark face.

Chloe laughed softly causing Ororo to look at her curiously.

"What?" the wind rider asked staring at the blond intrigued.

"I wasn't talking about Remy," Chloe said slyly.

It was rare, but Ororo felt a smirk spread across her lips.

"Who says that I was not aware of that?" she asked saucily.

Chloe couldn't help but giggle. The night before she had been feeling a twinge of sympathy towards Ororo over the fact that Remy had been shamelessly flirting with Lois, but despite Ororo's innocence and serene appearance, Chloe realized that Ororo had a little fire and spice inside her as well to match. Maybe that's what made Remy and Ororo every bit of the dynamic couple Kitty had described them to be when she had originally conversed with the brunette. Remy and Ororo had passion and they had something that was very rare, and that was a very deep and everlasting friendship. While Chloe totally respected that, she knew that it was only a matter of time before the couple's unbreakable bond was tested by an worthy adversary and the blond had a feeling that the adversary would be Clark.

After having the heart to heart talk with Ororo, Chloe suddenly didn't mind if Ororo accompanied her to Metropolis. In fact she was eager to pick the other woman's mind about everything from wedding plans to things involving the mission of destroying project 3.11.

"So shall we?" Chloe grinned grabbing her car keys out of her purse and leading Ororo out to her car parked in the driveway.

As the two women exited the house, Remy stared after them from a bedroom window upstairs with a frown on his face. He knew that he was hurting his Stormy with the cold silence treatment that he had been giving her, but he couldn't help the way he felt. She had pretty much showed her true colors the night before by being disloyal to him and defending Clark as if he was her man and he was just someone insignificant to her.

"Are ya finally gonna get yer head out of your ass, or will I have to do it for ya?" a low growl came from behind Remy.

The Cajun didn't have to turn around to place the rough voice as belonging to no one other then Logan.

"Do y' ever mind y' own affairs?" Remy asked sarcastically as he slowly turned around to face the feral man.

Logan was leaning in the door frame with his arms folded across his chest and his piercing eyes were locked on the Cajun unyielding. He knew that Gambits remark had been a smart ass one and it took everything inside of him to ignore it and proceed in making the point that he had come there to make.

"If ya continue to act like an jealous jack ass, then you will lose her, and you ain't gonna have Clark to blame for that. You will only have yourself to blame," Logan warned evenly before walking off leaving Remy absorbing everything he had said.

_Y' know he's right, Remy. Y' are an idiot!. You are gonna let somethin' dis stupid be de reason y' lose de woman dat you love? _an nagging voice in his head growled as he gritted his teeth from the intensity of the weight of his emotions.

He shook his head firmly. He and Ororo had been through too much and had too much love between them to let things end this way. He would find some way to fix things. He had to find some way to make everything right. He clenched his fist as he thought of his Stormy slipping through his fingers. He couldn't bear to lose her. He do anything to keep from losing her. Anything...

* * *

_Where am I?_

_The question echoed frighteningly loud, deep in Alexander Luthor's sub conscious as he felt himself free fall into a sea of darkness. He felt the familiar touches of intense pain as he realized that he might be either dying or was actually already dead. The last thing he could clearly remember was holding Clark's weak body in his arm in the center of an ice cave as it crumbled down around them violently. In those final seconds of consciousness, Lex had stared down at Clark's pale face etched with intense pain and fear and felt a pang of sympathy and regret rip through his chest. Even though he knew that their situation looked grave and hopeless, a small spark of faith ignited deep inside of him. During all the times he knew Clark, Lex had been absolutely certain that the farm boy who had rescued him from his watery grave had been keeping an mysterious secret from him. No matter how many times he had desperatly attempted to learn the truth behind the mystery known as "Clark Kent" he had always came up short of the truth, until now. He had finally reached his destiny in learning Clark's true identity and he knew that it wasn't time for either of them to die. There had been alot of noise and alot of fear as he watched as several sharp pieces of ice showering down around them dangerously. _

_"Clark, I'm so sorry for this, but you and I both know this is our destiny. Our fates have always been intertwine. This is it," Lex whispered almost in reverence as a blinding white light began to engulf them both__._

_Buried beneath the ice, Lex slipped into a deep state of screaming silence. Every now and then he would feel the slightest surge of pain come over him that was excruciating, but then it would slowly fade and he was left alone in the darkness with this thoughts and the sound of his weak yet audible heartbeat. As he wondered how he had managed to arrive to the place where he was now, he felt a wave of sadness wash over him as an sudden realization hit him. Never truly knowing his mother had been the catalyst behind many of his hostile and bitter tactics when it came to manipulating his own life. He had been robbed by fate the chance to actually grow up and be nurtured by a compassionate loving parent. Instead, he had been left in the care of his cold, ruthless and uncaring father, Lionel Luther. With no siblings to help carry his burden, Lex had been left alone to play with his expensive toys and on rare occasions the sons and daughters of other rich billionaires including the likes of Oliver Queen. Resentment and coldness had managed to build between his years from his childhood leading to his adulthood. He began to lose more connections with his humanity in his quest for greatness and power. In a twisted way, he wanted to achieve the utmost level of superiority and dominance so he could gain the approval of his stone hearted Lionel Luther, but that never happened. He could feel his heart break slightly as he recalled the night he had murdered his father in his own office. He had been left with no other choice. It had come down to proving his ruthlessness and the only way he knew he would ever gain his father's acceptance was through death. When his father had been buried, there had been only one other person that Lex had a love/ hate relationship and that was Clark Kent._

_Lex figured that if Clark had told him the truth from the get go about him being from another planet, things would have never ended up the way that they had. He was sure that he could have been the trust worthy and dependable friend that Clark could turn to whenever he was at a moral crossroad. He had never really had any true friends. When Clark had saved him from that car crash on the bridge that fateful day, Lex had truly believed that he had found someone who he could truly call a friend. Clark had seemed to be a mild mannered, shy, and noble country boy who's stature was fairly intimidating and impressive, and his personality was as gentle as a lamb. Lex found Clark to be the very thing that Lex wished he could. He was pure, good, and to many...a savior._

_He blinked back burning tears of anger and bitterness as he knew that there would never be a chance to go back and mend things with Kent. He had realized this fact a long time ago around the time he had married Lana. Out of all the things that were down right horrific that had taken place between him and Clark the worse thing had been the involvement of Lana. The small rift that had been between them ealier had evolved into as bigger one. As pain began to seize him once more, Lex felt all his thoughts fade away as he began to fall into a deep slumber._

As he drifted deep into his subconscious he was unaware of a dark and shadowy force watching over him intently....

Nathaniel Essex slowly advanced towards Lex healing water chamber with his face twisted deep in thought. It shouldn't be taking this long! If his serum was constructed correctly as it was suppose to be, then Lex should have been conscious and more stronger then before hours ago. Something had to have went wrong. Something was missing in the genetic code that he had constructed in his lab. He needed something more...something powerful...

He smiled as he headed towards his private room where he kept the prized meteor rock the size of a golf ball in the basement below the room. Sinister had first come to learn about the foreign piece of meteor rock when he had stumbled across articles in the on line library archive of Smallville, Kansas about strange green rocks that caused mutation in a variety of different people that came in contact with it. Intrigued by the endless possibilities of a small yet powerful rock, Essex hadn't been able to resist the temptation of sneaking into Metropolis Hospital and stealing the only source of the meteor stone that that the hospital kept locked away for testing.

Although he was victorious over the priceless prize that he had managed to reclaim rather easily, Sinister knew that he had to remember to be very careful and on alert at all times. If it was discovered that he was snooping around the ward that held his desired meteor infected freaks, someone was bound to take notice and alert authorities. Fortunately for Sinister he had already found a back up plan.

While he had been wandering around in the hospital, he had come across an open invitation to a charity event the hospital was holding that night and he had quickly grabbed the invite into his possession. The itinerary said that the director of Bell Reeve was going to be there and the director was the key to the biggest and most grandest part of his plan. He knew that once he managed to get to the director that he was certain that he would have complete access to all the most powerful and dangerous meteor freaks and his army would be complete.

As the mad genetic genius sat to work re organizing his lab utensils, he let his mind drift over the events that had taken place in the last couple of days. In Nathaniel Essex's opinion, Lex Luther was lucky to be alive. He had several serious external injuries including a punctured spleen, several broken ribs, an collapsed lung and his leg was fractured in several places. It was a miracle that Lex had stayed alive this long after all the physical damage and nearly irreparable internal injuries that he had sustained.

Essex was preparing to head into the other room when he heard the machines in the lab behind him began to beep loudly indicating a change in Lex's health status. Whirling around quickly, he rushed back to Lex's bedside, where he realized with amazement that Lex's vital signs were rising rapidly. A victorious smile spread across his lips as he realized that the experimental genetic formula he had conjured up to heal Lex had actually worked. He had finally found the missing key to his experiment and it was in the form of a small yet powerful meteor rock.

Pressing a small red button on the side of the tomb like chamber, the glass retreated back exposing Lex's nude, vulnerable and newly transformed body. His eyes were open wide, but Natheniel wasn't exactly too sure if the bald headed wannabe tyrant was actually conscious or not. As he moved closer, he noticed Lex's fingers and toes twitching slightly beneath the meteor laced water. He knew the movement was most likely to the reaction the powerful sedative Sinister had given him before the surgery, but he wasn't about to take any chances. Moving carefully, Sinister reached over and removed the oxygen mask that had been placed over Lex's nose and mouth during the procedure. As he stared at the medical monitors he was astonished at how quickly his white cell was regenerating. These kind of results were very rare and very extraordinary.

Suddenly Lex blinked and before Essex knew what was happening, Lex's hand had torpedo out of the water and landed violently around the doctor's throat. Sinster could only watch in slight fear and fascination as Lex narrowed his eyes in rage while tightning his grip around his throat.

"Lex, let go. It's me. Sinister," he growled angrily as he used his superhuman strength and effortlessly pulling Lex hand away from his throat.

"What happened? Where am I?" he demanded looking around frantically, as he stood up completely naked and up to his ankle in the strange liquid he had been submerged in moments earlier.

"You're alive and your alive for only one reason. To serve my purprose. Make no mistake about it, I was the one to breathe life back into you when those close to you enemies and allies alike would rather see you dead. If you dare put your hands on me ever again, I will not hesitate to take the life back out of you," Essex warned dangerously.

"Where is Tess? The last time I was conscious I remember that she was the one over seeing my care," Lex said agitated.

"Let me assure you that Ms. Mercer was not giving you the most extensive care that you needed," he said soothingly, "I had more advance technology to take care of you, Lex. You should be grateful."

"Last time I checked I wasn't really intrested in selling my soul to the devil. No good ever comes from it," he growled defiantly.

Nathaniel smiled amused.

"The devil? You got it all wrong. I'm more of a savior then a devil to you," he assured.

"How so?" Lex growled.

"I am here to improve your life. Not destroy it," he said innocently.

Lex snorted with disbelief.

"Yeah, and forgive me, but I wasn't born yesterday. I know you wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't something in it for you," he said bluntly.

Essex smirked as he stopped pacing around the room and turned to face the indignant billionaire. His smile froze on his face and he narrowed his ember red eyes at Lex dangerously. Lex was starting to grind on his last nerve. The boy was young insolent and utterly petulant. If it had been anyone else, Sinister would have had them killed or worse, but Lex was different. He was a very important key in Sinisters evil plan. Lex harbored an incredible amount of hatred and malice towards his Nemesis the alleged innocent and noble Clark Kent.

"What is it that you want from me?" Lex demanded agitated.

"I want you to serve as a general in my army of genetically superior men and women who will take complete control of this planet. Power will be ours to wield," he grinned darkly.

Lex frowned unconvinced. He had been approached many of times by people who thought that they had some grand master plan that could assist him in taking over the world, but there was something about this doctor that had always seemed different ever since the first time that Lex had met him. Unlike the others, Sinister had actually shown that he was an asset and could afford to bring something to the table. His extensive work and mass knowledge in the genetic arena greatly intrigued Lex and he had instantly knew that his doctor could actually help him complete his experiments in the project 3.11 and he could have his invincible soldiers up and functioning in no time. Unfortunately they appeared to be a glitch in the plan as Lex and Natheniel stared at each other, both stuck in a silent stared down.

"That sounds ambitious and everything, but you forgot one important detail, doc. I'm not a meteor freak," he said snidely.

Mr. Sinister shook his head with a dark grin spread across his black lips.

"Trust me. There is no need to worry. Even though you are not meteor infected, you and your new and improved body will be unstoppable against any force," he said victoriously.

"Unstoppable?" Lex scoffed rudely, "You obviously have no idea of who Clark Kent is."

Mr. Sinster chuckled softly.

"If you think that the form that you are currently in is the end result for your physical manifestation, then you are sadly mistaken," Essex said evily.

"I feel perfectly fine," Lex said doubtfully.

"That's exactly my point, dear boy. You feel like you are normal, yet less then seventy-two hours ago, your body suffer such extreme trauma that it was highly doubtful that you would ever recover. When I am done with you, you are going to feel extraordinary and you will be damn near indestructible ," he promised cryptically.

Lex walked towards the nearest mirror with a transfixed expression on his face.

"Your body has an extremely rare chromosome which makes you impervious to certain things. If you trust me and my medical research, Clark Kent will pale in comparison to your new found power," Sinister said seductively.

"I'm in. What's our first move?" Lex asked curtly.

"I have an rather extreme idea of the source which to transfer powers beyond your wildest drams from, but I need your help acquiring the source. Do you think that you can do that one thing so that we can complete your transformation?" he asked patiently.

Lex turned away from the mirror and faced the doctor with a chilling look in his eyes.

"Make no mistake about it, Essex. I am willing to do whatever it takes in order to achieve my highest level of greatness. Whatever this source is that you are looking for, make no mistake about it that I will have it in my possession very quickly," he promised evenly.

Sinister grinned feeling reassured that Lex was the perfect choice for this particular position in his plan. With Lex's help, Sinister would have everything he needed to become the most powerful being in the world and no one would be able to stop him. Not the government, not Charles Xavier and the Xmen, not Clark....NO ONE!

**Please Review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**An: I apologize for the delay. I had thought I had come to an dead end with this story, but found it the other day and became inspired again. Hopefully things will run smoothly from this point on if the creative juices continue to flow...Feedback is appreciative, but if you are still a devoted follower of this story, thats enough feedback for me =)**

**Chapter**

As Ororo and Chloe made their way into town, both secretly harboring different agendas, Clark, Logan and the others met in the living room to discuss strategy and the leads they had learned from the previous nights mission. As Clark and Logan began to give a joint briefing over the upcoming mission, Remy tuned their voices out of his head, closing his deep scarlet red eyes as he became lost in his thoughts about Ororo and their future together. There were already so many things that the cajun regretted in his life as it was, and the one thing he did not want to live to regret was losing the best thing that had ever happened to him. While his ego was still slightly bruised over what had taken place the night before, he was willing to swallow his pride to make things right with Ororo. She was his everything, and despite they had been fighting for less then a twenty-four hour time span, he missed her. It was practically eating him alive to recall the sadness that had flashed across her face after their confrontation moments earlier, and made him feel even worse to know that he was the direct cause of her pain. Out of all of the promises that he ever made her, the one he had never wanted to break was the one he made to never hurt her. Lately it seemed that it was all he was doing, and he no longer could continue to do it to her anymore.

Even after everything had been said and done, Remy felt that he had went a little too far in implementing Clark's mother as working with Lex, but he had only done that out of his resentment of the way Ororo and Clark seemed to be working together with more then friendship fueling their drive as a team. He knew that reason wouldn't make his actions anymore justifiable in anyone eyes, but it was what Ororo felt that mattered mostly to him. He made a mental note to talk to her as soon as she returned back to the farm. He knew from experience that if he pushed Ororo's patience too far that she would start to push him away and he couldn't risk that. Especially since he knew that Clark would be more then happy to be willing to take his place in Ororo's life. The thought of Ororo and Clark together romantically made a horrible taste fill Remy's mouth and he pushed his mug of coffee away no longer thirsty.

He was thinking over the variety of different ways that he could charm himself on getting back in Ororo's good graces, when something Logan had said caught his attention, causing him to snap back to reality with a frown on his lips.

"Remy don't mean t' interrupt, but what was y' jus sayin?" the ca jun asked staring at the two intently.

Logan narrowed his dark eyes shining with annoyance as he glared at the ca jun.

"I said that Kent and I are going to deploy into the field and do surveillance of the warehouses Lex has outside of the Metropolisis area. Do you have a problem with that, Gumbo? Or can we continue this brief?" he growled mildly irritated.

Remy smirked and stood up from the loveseat he had been lounging on with Kitty on one side and Anna or the other. He could see that Logan was clearly annoyed, and while that had not been Remy's true intent, the perk of getting under the man's skin was very gratifying.

"Does Stormy know about dis?" he asked innocently as he effortless rolled a quarter between his fingers.

"Let's get one thing clear, Gumbo. I don't answer to Ro. She and I make decisions concerning this team together. If you want to question my decisions, then maybe you should take your scrawny ass off the team," he snarled, his eyes flashing with anger.

Remy glared at him evenly before continuing.

"Is Remy de only one that tinks dat sittin' out valuable members on de sidelines is a bad call? He tinks every skilled person should be utilized, and who is more skill den Gambit, non?" he asked curtly.

Before Logan could respond, Clark interrupted.

"Actually Logan is right. This mission really doesn't require a big team, so we will have a two man team of myself and Logan to go take surveillance of these warehouses nearby, and the rest of you can stay behind and see what else you can dig up," Clark re established firmly making unwavering eye contact with Remy.

Kitty swallowed as she stared at the three men, the tension flowing between them nearly palpable. She was truly getting the full meaning of the saying, too many chiefs, not enough Indians...

Anna pouted with her arms folded across her chest unhappily.

"Well, what are we suppose to do around here while you boys go out and have all the fun? No offense handsome, but there is only so much digging up that we can do in the middle of nowhere," she protested.

"I'll leave you three to figure it out," Logan said stiffly before heading out of the room down the hall to use the head before the surveillance mission. Soon Kitty exited the room and the house suddenly became silent.

Looking around, Anna smiled nervously as she came to the realization that she and Remy were left standing alone in the room. Finally, after a painfully long silence had passed between them, Anna cleared her throat and decided to initiate conversation with her brooding ex.

"Are y' goin tell me what's eatin' at ya, or are you gonna to just sit there and sulk all day?" she purred leaning against the door frame with her arms folded across her budging breast that appeared full and inviting beneath the plain white tshirt with the print of some vintage band scrawled across the front of it. Her blue jeans were worn and had holes in the knees but they fit her tightly and complimented her well rounded bottom.

Usually Remy would take a few seconds to appreciate how good she looked dressed casually with her long thick mane pulled back into a loose side ponytail, but tonight he was obviously not in the mood. He gripped his coffee mug tightly as he felt frustration flood through him as his mind kept replaying the incident that had happened the night before.

"Why don't y' go bat your eyes at Kent or Queen? Remy ain't in de mood for one of yo' childish games," he growled annoyed.

Anna laughed.

"Don't be jealous, swamp rat. Those boys are just as single and on the market as I am. Well except for maybe Clark seein' how he obvious has it bad for someone...lucky girl...whoever she may be," she said innocently.

Even though Remy could care less about who Anna wanted to slither into bed with, her comment about Clark rubbed him the wrong way. It didn't take a completely idiotic person to hear what she was insinuating in her tone of voice.

"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked narrowing his eyes at her dangerously.

Anna smiled to herself as she realized that things were definitely working out in her favor. Ororo and Remy were keeping a cool distance from one another and judging from the conversation that she had over heard taking place between Ororo and Chloe, Anna knew that it was only a matter of time before Remy pushed Ororo too far with his insecurity and jealousy right into the awaiting arms of Clark Kent. Once that happened, Remy would finally honor the promise that he made her, and Anna would have everything she wanted and that was rightfully hers. The thought made her smile and before she could contain the vindictive thoughts going through her head, she was batting her eyelashes at the troubled Cajun with a seductive smile on her lips.

"Nothin'...I suppose..." she drawled coyly.

"Are y' gonna keep standin' there staring at me like a cat in heat, or are y' gonna say what you are over there dyin' t' get off y' mind?" he asked flatly.

Anna could hear the hint of challenge in his voice, and judging from the tension in his usually relaxed posture she knew that he was itching for a fight. Anna could tell that he was looking to lash out on his feelings involving his explosive confrontation with Ororo the night before, and if he needed someone to lash out at, she didn't mind being his unfortunate target. Despite their rocky past, there was nothing more that Anna wanted then to be there for the man who she was undeniably in love with. They were destined to be together, and Anna felt that if she could make him realize as much then maybe they could get back to the place they had once been before things had gotten rocky and very complicated.

"Alright, if you really want to know what Ah think, here it is. Ah think that whatever it is that you and Ro may of had between you, has ran its course. After last night's little drama, you two clearly are not in sync with one another. You and I both know how complicated and painful it can be to come to grips with falling out of love with someone," she said softly.

The cajun stared at her almost surprised by her boldness.

"Remy don't know, or _care _t' know where you get your gossip from, but just because we are having our differences right now doesn't mean we ain't still in love with each other," he snapped.

The look on Anna's beautiful face showed that she wasn't the slightest bit convinced.

"Really? After last night, do you really think that your impending marriage honestly stands a chance of surviving? Think about it, gumbo. Ororo's defense of Clark should have showed you that she puts nothing above her loyalty to certain friends. Not even her relationship with you. Is that the kind of woman you really want to be with?" she asked quietly.

When he didn't respond, Anna decided just to push him a bit more further.

"If you won't listen to me, at least think about her past with Forge," she tried.

"Watch it, cherie," he warned cutting her off with a dangerous glint in his eyes,"Y' will do well not t' forget it was y' schemin', psychotic mother who was behind that whole mess, in de first place."

Anna laughed in disbelief.

"It wasn't as if mah mother held a gun to his head to make him leave. She told him the truth about Ororo. It's the same truth that Ah am tellin' y' now but you are jus' to bone headed to accept it," she said evenly.

Remy stared at her as incredulously.

"De truth is dat Stormy would have said yes to Forge's proposal if Raven didn't interfere," he informed stiffly.

"We both know that's a load of crap. He left because he knew that she would never leave the school and her life as the leader of the Xmen, to give it up for some dream of a family and a picket white fence," she spat.

"He left because y' mother convinced him of dat much. He never waited around fo' her answer that would have proved Raven wrong," he growled.

"Is that what she told you?" she asked in a sweet condescending voice.

He remained stoically quiet unwilling to answer Anna's question because he was too busy wondering how in the hell he managed to get things so tangled? The way he had acted the previous night was almost like a wake up call and it wasn't because of Clark and Ororo. It was because he allowed an emotion as powerful, destructive and ugly as jealousy to embarrass not only Ororo, but himself. It was the same jealousy he recognized in Anna, and he knew if he wasn't careful, it would consume him just as well.

"Well, darlin?" Anna pressed morbidly anxious for a response.

Remy shook his head disgusted. He hated when Anna acted this way. There were the days when the angst filled brunette vixen wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, and treated him like he was lower then the scum of the earth, and then there were unfortunate days, like the present. This was one of those days where she managed to convince herself that she was absolutely taken and in love with Remy that she felt somewhere deep down inside of her that she couldn't he without him. It was almost as if she had split personalities, and due to all the souls that the gal had absorbed in her short life time, he wouldn't be surprised to find out that her dark and miserable curse and reluctant power had somehow altered her characteristic traits. Realizing that he was becoming just a little too sympathetic for her case, he narrowed his eyes sternly.

"Y' should jus' stay out of my affairs, cherie. When are y' gonna learn dat my relationship with Stormy dosent' involve you?" he asked coldly.

Anna smiled sweetly as she rested her hands on his shoulder and leaned down until her lip was near his ear. Her smile deepened and she could barely fight back a victorious moan as she felt him shudder deliciously beneath her touch.

"You didn't seem to mind involving me when y' two weren't happy. In fact, ah can recall you holdin' me tellin' me things that we both know you can never take back. Whispering broken promises against my lips in that flea bag hotel one night... Ah wonder why that is?" she taunted softly running her gloved through his long auburn hair almost seductively.

Remy shook her hand away agitated as he rose from his chair and faced her with his burning red and black eyes boring down into hers angrily.

"Remy made a mistake. He thought dat maybe if he left Stormy fo' y' things would be alot simple for her an' fo' me. He was wrong an' he has been workin' as hard as he can t' do right by her an' y' ain't helpin' with your constant mind fucks," he exploded.

His words caused a pang of hurt to rip through Anna's heart and instantly the coy smile she had been wearing earlier disappeared from her lips and was replaced with a deep scowl. It hurt her deeply to realize that there was a real chance that Remy may never love her again and the fact that he had promised her that they would be together again and he didn't mean it left her feeling hurt, angry, and betrayed.

"Fine! If you don't want to be with me, and continue to deny what is really good between us, then that is your choice. Ah do think with all things considered that you need to tell Ro the truth. She doesn't deserve to be left in the dark," Anna said quietly.

"Why do y' even care? It's not like y' are a friend to Ororo. Y' haven't been holdin' on t' my secret all dis time because y' are my friend. Y' are jus' lookin' fo' an opportunity t' get me back," he said scathingly.

"Ah kept your secret thinking that you would take your head out of your ass and see that you don't deserve Ororo. Ah think she deserves to know the truth about the so call man that she can't wait to marry," she hissed furiously.

Feeling threatened by her intentions to expose his past transgressions to Ororo, he grabbed her roughly causing a small cry to escape her lips.

"If you do anything to destroy what Ororo and Remy has, Remy swears," he warned threateningly.

Anna glowered up at him defiantly feeling rage and a little turned on, and she could tell by the abrupt change of his breathing that he was as well.

"What, Remy? What are you going to do to me that you haven't done before?" she taunted darkly.

He released her abruptly causing her lips to part as they were pressed nose to nose.

"This isn't a game," he warned quietly.

"We both know the only reason that we are still havin' this conversation is because y' want t' play with me, sugah," she teased saucily leaning in closer to him with a challenge lurking deep in her eyes as her lips pressed gently together.

His crimson red eyes narrowed as he realized what Anna was wanting from him. She was daring him to kiss her, and while there had been so many times in the past where he truly had been tempted to, it always led to one thing. Trouble. Kissing her prelude nearly every bad thing that had happened to him since he had joined the Xmen and meeting her.

The Cajun frowned deeply and stepped away from her.

"Remy can't keep doin' dis, Anna. We can't keep runnin' in these circles. It ain't fair to' Stormy. We shouldn't have went as far as we did that night and Remy ain't tryin' t' make de same mistake here," he growled shoving away.

Tears suddenly sprang to her eyes.

"This can't be what you really want," she whispered thickly staring into his eyes desperately hopefully to find some compassion.

He was opening his mouth to reply, when another male voice cut him off.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Anna and Remy both whirled around hastily as they came face to face with an stone faced Clark who was standing in the entrance of the living room. Anna swallowed back her tears unable to look Clark in the eye. The fact that she had been caught in a compromising position with her friends fiance' made her face flood with shame and she began to realize that she wasn't the only one who stood a chance at being hurt. She had been so determined with forcing Remy to keep his promise to her, that she hadn't allow herself to consider the consequences of her friendship with the windrider and the pain that it would cause. Suddenly filled with overwhelming guilt, she began to head towards Clark,

"A-ah, Ah am gonna go f-find Kitty and see what s-she's working on," Anna stammered flushing before brushing past the glaring Kryptonian and fleeing upstairs.

"Remy takes it dat y' gonna tell Stormy what you saw thinkin' maybe that it will let you get any closer to her?" he asked darkly amused as he stared Clark down unwaveringly.

Clark narrowed his eyes annoyed at cajun as he walked into the room closing the distance between them. When he had first saw Anna and Remy alone and that close together, he thought he may have been misreading the situation. It had been when Anna had touched Remy's face with her gloved hand intimately did he realized that he had stumbled onto something he was never suppose to witness. He knew that it wasn't his place to get involved, but he wasn't going to stand by if he knew that there was the slightest chance that Ororo might get hurt in anyway.

"I wouldn't expose whatever it is that you have going on to further my relationship with Ororo. To be honest, you really need to let whatever suspicions you have toward me and Ororo. She chose to be with you. That should be good enough," Clark said curtly.

Remy laughed scornfully.

"It's good enough. Question homme', is it good for you?" he challenged with a dangerous edge in his voice.

"The only thing that needs to be good for me is that you see that Ororo doesn't get hurt. Make sure you don't make that mistake," Clark said stiffly before turning to walk away afraid that he would let his emotions get the best of him.

Remy's arrogant laugh caused him to stop abruptly in his tracks.

"What y' expectin' t' happen, Kent? Y' tink dat once Stormy finds out things dat Remy has been hidin' from her dat she is going to run straight into y' arms?" he asked laughing condescendingly, "Sorry t' disappoint y' but Stormy ain't dat weak. She de type of woman who stands by her man."

Clark narrowed his eyes as he whirled around and faced the cajun angrily.

"Trust me...I know what kind of woman she is and she is just as smart as she is strong. She will realize that she deserves better then you, and while it might not happen right away, she will leave you," Clark promised.

"Remy don't know what kind of scenario that's goin' through dat tin steel skull of yours, but let Remy assure you, Remy isn't dumb enough to risk his relationship with Ororo, jus' so he can't get some twisted cheap thrills with Rogue," he said chillingly.

For a long tense unnerving silence Remy stared Clark down with a haughty gaze completely expecting the other man to give in, but when he continued to stare back at him steadily with his piercing blue eyes narrowed, he knew that neither of them would be backing down anytime soon. Suddenly the screen door opening and closing broke the tense silence and Logan came walking into the living room.

"Hey, Kent. Are you ready?" he asked gruffly as he stared between the two men suspiciously.

Logan didn't have to take a single sniff to know that the room was practically sizzling with tension and hostility.

Inwardly Clark was relieved that Logan had walked in when he did or he wouldn't know where the conversation would have led to.

"Remy is glad we had this talk, homme', but even when it comes to Stormy, he don't take kindly t' bein threatin," he warned coldly.

Clark stopped at the front door and glowered at Remy with nothing short of contempt.

"Trust me, Remy. That wasn't a threat. Don't take her for granted because I assure you that the next guy won't make that same mistake, and _that _is a promise" he warned quietly, before storming away.

**End Note: I know that was alot happening at once, by the next chapters should be back on pace...**


	19. Chapter 19

**An: I will post the next chapter sometime next week. =) Enjoy!**

"So after Jimmy proposed to you, Homeland Security broke in and _arrested _you?" Ororo exclaimed in disbelief.

Chloe nodded and couldn't help but stifle a soft giggle she felt dancing behind her lips as she glanced at the windrider's mortified expression. While being illegally detained caused Chloe much anguish, trauma, and probably months of therapy in the near future, the former reporter couldn't help but smile feeling a strong sense of gratitude as she realized that she had survived the whole horrible experience in one piece and was lucky to be alive. Sighing amused, she shook her head as she realized how chaotic her life had recently become. If she wasn't being kidnapped in one minute, she was working side by side with a group of super powered vigilante's the next.

Glancing side ways at Ororo, she could admit that while she was more comfortable working within the trusted inner circle already formed around Clark, she had come to realize that working with the Xmen wasn't half that bad. Kitty was actually an impressive hacker, and from what she had seen firsthand, Logan and Remy were two wild forces of nature that would leave anyone breathless over at how well and fierce they defended themselves. While she deeply respected Ororo and liked most of the members of the team, she had no other choice but to push aside her nagging conscious reminding her that she was betraying them by hindering their mission. She knew that while her tactics were deceptive and borderline manipulative, she felt what she was doing was necessary in order to protect Clark's secret once and for all. Despite all of her efforts, she couldn't shake the dreaded feeling that once her deception was learned, she would lose the respect of most if not all of those who had once trusted her.

Shoving all the guilt and fear to the most darkest and most isolated part of her mind, Chloe pasted on her brightest smile and forced herself to not only focus on the road, but also at the task at hand. Sullivan knew that the ride into the city was a chance for the two women to catch up with one another and she was determined not to waste the entire ride having a guilt trip. The radio jammed the latest hit from the band "The Fray" as the former reporter and the weather witch rode in a comfortable silence down the country road in the blonde's burgundy PT Cruiser with the window's down and the warm breeze wiping through their hair.

They were ten minutes outside of Metropolis and Chloe was in the middle of changing CD's in her car's sound system when the sound of thunder rolling softly across the previously blue sky startled her. Frowning slightly, she was puzzled at how the forecast had changed from clear to cloudily so quickly. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Chloe noticed Ororo starring out the window with an bleak expression on her lovely dark face. Her blue eyes were filled with confusion and sadness and the corners of her pout full lips were tight and drawn back with tension. Seeing the sudden change in Ororo and the weather, Chloe started to become concerned.

"Is everything ok?" she asked concerned.

The weather witch smiled sheepishly.

"I am fine," she said softly.

Chloe bit her bottom lips softly. She knew that getting Ororo to open up was going to be like pulling teeth, but she was determined to try. Judging from the looks of the weather, any minute the clouds could open up and produce a rain storm, and Chloe knew for a fact that the weather man had called for nothing but clear skies that entire day. Clearing her throat she rolled her window up a little before striking up a conversation to fill the silence.

"Do you mind if I ask you for some advice? I figure you are the best person to ask," Chloe started.

Ororo smiled warmly.

"Of course I don't mind. What is it that you wish to know?" she inquired lightly.

"We both are pretty close to Clark, and we both have had a significant impact on his life and are both engaged. Do you ever feel guilty that the role that we play in his life is going to change a great deal? I mean, after we are married, Clark is going to be secondary in our lives," Chloe said quietly.

Ororo's eyes widened in surprise.

"You loved him once," she said stunned.

The short hair blonde blushed and nodded sheepishly.

"Yes. I know that this going to sound like I have gone completely postal, but I always had this crazy idea that he would eventually fall in love with me, and stop seeing me as more then just his side kick, but that never happened. I think it could have happened if it Lana and Lois never existed, but I'll never know. When I met Jimmy, all these unresolved feelings I had for Clark slowly just faded away. I knew that he was the one," she murmured with a wistful yet happy expression on her face.

What the blonde was saying struck a nerve with Ororo. She secretly could relate to the struggle Chloe was going through with the one she was having in her own relationship with Clark. She knew that marrying Remy meant that she would have to put the unresolved feelings she had for the Krytonian to rest, and in that moment she wasn't sure if she was quite ready to do that. There were still some questions she needed answers to and she was afraid that the answers she might find could lead to an uncertain fate for Remy's and Ororo's future.

"Are you having second thoughts or any doubts?" Ororo asked gently.

Chloe smiled and shook her head.

"Don't get me wrong. While it's going to be hard to accept the fact that Clark will no longer need me, I love what Jimmy is offering me, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him but," she admitted softly.

"I guess in a way we are both scared of losing the same man. You are scared of losing a man who has always needed you, and I'm scared of losing a man that I may have needed all along," she murmured quietly.

Ororo's sudden confession took Chloe completely by surprise. She always known there were some kind of feelings between Clark and Ororo, but she never guessed that her feelings ran this deep. The look on the weather witch's face expressed that not even she was aware at how deep her feelings for the native Kryptonian ran.

"I think in some small way, Clark will always need me, and until you come to a definite conclusion about your feelings for Clark, a small part of you will always need him," she said gently.

"I suppose," she responded very softly smile that was a little too sweet and a little too bright.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the conversation had struck a nerve with both women, and while Chloe knew Ororo had made a good point earlier, she knew it was best if she respected the weather's witch privacy given the sensitive nature of the matter and change the subject. Forcing a smile, Chloe turned up the radio and began to sing along to an upbeat tune and for the rest of the ride there was no further mention of Clark, Jimmy or Remy.

Fifteen minutes later, after fighting nightmarish traffic through out the city of Metropolis, they finally arrived at their destination. As the two women walked through the doors of the Daily Planet, Ororo couldn't help but to pause in her footsteps as she took a moment to observe her surroundings wide eyed. The building was huge and seemed to be crawling with hundreds of people who were rushing back and forth either busy talking on their cell phones or conversing with other coworkers.

Chloe noticed the look of amazement on Ororo's face and grinned.

"Believe it or not, if you can ignore the weird and bizarre that takes place here on a weekly basis, this city actually has its charms," Chloe said wryly as they walked through the two massive doors that served as the entrance of the infamous newspaper production company known world wide.

Ororo smiled uneasily as she and the blonde made their way through the bustling crowd of people coming in and out of the Daily Planet. The swarm of people was making her feel slightly clasophobic and she inhaled deeply to keep her nerves at bay. As Ororo followed Chloe closely, she couldn't help but be in awe at how huge and overwhelming the building was. It stood forty stories high and employed hundreds of thousand of people. The weather witch was so lost in thought that she almost didn't notice when Chloe had come to an abrupt stop. Snapping back to reality, Ororo felt some of her blood drain from her face as she realized that she was standing in front of an elevator. The thought of occupying such a small place with such a crowd of people waiting along with them made Ororo's fears resurface, and sub consciously, she stumbled a few steps away from the elevator. Chloe noticed and tilted her head in concern.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked gently.

Ororo shook her head.

"You go on. I do not mind taking the stairs. I will meet you down there," Ororo assured with a smile.

While Chloe disappeared into the elevator, Ororo headed towards the alternative means of getting to the basement grateful to get away from the hustle and bustle of the people in the main hall.

As she walked down the flight of stairs leading to the stairs, Ororo began to wonder how things were back in New York. She wondered how her students were keeping up with their studies and if the school would still be in one piece when she returned. Even though she knew that Scott being in charged would prevent any disastrous mischief from happening, she knew from experience that if left alone for even the smallest moment could reap dire consequences. She couldn't fight a smile as she recalled as Jubilee and Bobby Drake had been engaged in an argument, and despite being older, Bobby had acted immature and taunted the young Asian girl to her breaking point. It had taken Bobby more then a few hours of being rubbed down with ointment to relieve him from the minor burn scars that Jubilee had saw fit to sear in his backside with several well placed fireworks.

Ororo was coming down the last flight of steps when a guy in front of her barged through the basement doors causing a woman holding a stack of newspapers on the other side to drop them causing them to fly all over the place. Ororo was horrified as she watched the guy step pass the woman and the scattered mess of paper on the floor as if the whole scene was invisible to him. Moving swiftly, Ororo stepped forward and kneeled down to help the woman.

"Thanks," the woman smiled appreciatively before shaking her head in disgust, "Some people were just born assholes."

As the two women gathered the scattered paper, Ororo couldn't help but notice that the brunette looked vaguely familiar. Before Ororo could inquire as to where she knew the woman from, the brunette thrust out her hand flashing a bright warm smile in a friendly greeting.

"Hi, I'm Lois Lane," she grinned brightly.

Ororo returned her handshake and smiled.

"I am Ororo," she said warmly.

As the two women conversed and continued to gathered the scattered paper work and article clippings, they were unaware that the blonde companion that they both happened to have in common was watching them cautiously from afar as she made a secret phone call in the copy room. She shifted impatiently after the phone had rung a fourth time and she had failed to get a response. Finally after the sixth ring, Oliver Queen picked up.

"Yes?" he asked flatly.

"Did you do it?" she asked hastily.

The line was silent for a moment before Oliver's voice came through the receiver.

"Yeah...it's done," was the simple and short response Chloe received before the line went dead.

Chloe felt a mixture of relief and guilt wash over her as she realized that her biggest worry was now off of her shoulder's. She knew that Oliver was treating her coldly because he was feeling conflicted about what they were working together to achieve, but Chloe stood steadfast in her belief that this was the only way to keep Clark safe from Lex once and for all. She didn't feel good about having to lie and go about her plain in a veil of deceit and secrecy, but she had no other choice. As she turned a corner, she caught her reflection in the window, and she faltered momentarily. She recognized her reflection, but a part of her didn't recognize the person that she was becoming. The person that she appeared to her friends, and the person she became when she went to any lengths to protect them, were two completely different people. She knew that if Jimmy was to ever learn about how truly capable she was at being this deceptive and kept as many secrets as she did, she doubt that he wouldn't have second thoughts about taking back his marriage proposal. Closing her eyes, she knew that she was just having a small attack of conscience, and that the moment would pass once she refocused her attention back on the mission at hand which was finding any new lead that would lead her closer to finding Lex Luther.

Taking a deep breath and exhaled deeply before heading towards the staircase to meet Ororo.

As Chloe grew closer to the windrider she realized that Ororo was alone and no longer talking to Lois and was instead on her cell phone with a troubled look on her face. Chloe's stomach began to do flip flops as she began to wonder anxiously over who the windrider was on the phone with. She didn't have a chance to exercise her curiosity for too long when seconds later Ororo hung up the small phone and walked over to her with a grim look on her pretty face. Chloe got the distinct feeling that whatever Ororo was preparing to tell her would not be good knows. Swallowing deeply, she silently braced herself for the worse.

"What is it, Ororo? What happened?" she asked anxiously as she tucked a long strand of blonde hair behind her ear securely.

Ororo stared down at her sadly.

"I just received an status report from the field," she started.

Chloe's eyes widened hopefully.

"Were Logan and Clark able to secure t he warehouses and obtain any valuable information?" she asked eagerly.

Ororo shook her head with a look of devastation and frustration radiating in her stormy blue eyes.

Chloe bit her bottom lip softly as she stared at the other woman concerned.

"Ororo? What is it? Did something happen to the warehouse?" she asked worried.

The weather witch stared at her somberly.

"All three ware houses were burned down to the ground. All the information that we were searching for was destroyed along with any potentially lead that we could have used to find Lex," Ororo informed visibly upset before turning away and storming up the stairs anxious to get out of the Daily Planet leaving Chloe starring after her with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Scott are you almost ready? The car will be here in five minutes," a middle aged blonde woman called out to her husband as she carefully placed expensive diamond earrings in each of her earlobe.

A smile stretched across her lips as she heard her lover muffled response from the closet. From the sounds of it, he had become lost in the piles of evening gowns and cocktail dresses, expensive shoes, designer purses and boxes of costume jewelry she kept piled in their walk in closet. They had already had the closet rebuilt twice, and Emma feared that it would be less then a year before they would have to build on it again to accommodate all of her things.

Emma Frost was in a rare happy mood. Tonight she was taking a break from being a headmistress, an Xmen and a teacher and instead she was going to just enjoy one night in being a woman. Her husband Scott had surprised her earlier that day with tickets to an Orchestra that was playing at the Opera House in the city, and she was excited for the amazing evening she knew that was lying ahead of her. Checking her reflection in the mirror, she felt exactly how she looked. Beautiful. Her blonde hair flowed in soft waves around her bare shoulders and she was wearing a strapless emerald green gown that hugged her ample cleavage snuggly before the silhouette became a free fall around her feet strapped in jeweled six inch stilettos.

She was reaching for her crystal perfume bottle when there was a soft knock on the mahogany wooden door to the bedroom.

"I'll get it," Scott gasped as he finally emerged from the closet looking slightly dishelved.

He turned the knob and opened the door and was surprised when he came face to face with a flushed Jubilee.

"Somebody cleans up nicely," Jubilee grinned letting out a low whistle as she appreciatively observed Scott in his tailored black and white tux.

Scott blushed lightly as he combed his fingers through his perfectly cut chestnut brown hair slightly self conscious.

"Thanks, Jubes," he said bashfully.

Rolling her eyes, Emma gathered the loose fabric of her gown in one gloved hand before marching over to the entrance of her bedroom where her husband was idling.

"What is it that you wanted, Jubilee?" Emma asked curtly.

Startled, the Asian girl gum popped causing it to stick on half of her mouth earning her an amused look from Scott and an impatient one from his wife. Smiling nervously, Jubilee quickly wiped the sticky mess from her lips before delivering the message she had taken two flights of stairs and several long hallways to tell the head mistress.

"There is an online call waiting in the Danger Room for you, Scott. It's Logan," she informed quickly before rushing off back to where she had come from.

Emma huffed frustrated.

"I'll go take care of it," Scott started.

The blonde stopped him quickly with a sweet smile.

"Go wait for the car, my love. I will answer the call from Logan. You and I both know that the two of you don't have the most healthiest ways of communicating," she reminded wryly.

Scott grinned.

"That's very true. Don't let that Canuck keep you too long," he warned with a playful smile before heading down the stairs and disappearing into the foyer.

Taking one last glance in the vanity mirror beside her dresser, Emma smiled satisfied at her reflection, before grabbing her small crystal crusted clutch off the bed and exiting the bedroom. Moments later she arrived at the Danger Room, a place she had directed many missions briefings in. A place that she tended to showcase her power and authority. Breezing into the room, Emma grabbed the remote off the long steel table and turned on the television screen which was covered with Logan's face marred with his typical scowl. Placing her manicured hands on her hips, she frowned as she slowly advanced towards the screen with fire and annoyance raging in her eyes.

"You have better have a good reason for calling here tonight of all nights," she huffed folding her arms across her chest.

Logan took in the way she was dressed and smiled appreciatively.

"I'm sorry, darlin. Was I interruptin' somethin'?" Logan asked with a wicked smile across his lips.

Emma fought back a scarlet flush that was threatening to cover face.

"Not that it's any of your business, Logan, but yes, you were. Not that you would care, but today is Scott and mine's anniversary and I guess It was hoping a little too much to think we could enjoy the day without _any _interruptions," she scolded annoyed.

"Mastiff," Logan said sarcastically.

Emma stared at him irritated.

"What do you want?" she asked unpleasantly.

Logan smirked before briefing her on the current situation taking place in Kansas. As Emma listened intently, she was startled to find that all the warehouses that they had been tracking had been neutralize causing the trail of information to run cold. She felt her teeth clench tightly as she tried to mask her anger and frustration as she glared at Logan.

"Last time we spoke, you assured me that you were following solid leads on Lex's whereabouts and now you are telling me that you are back to where you started?" she asked incredously.

Logan frowned.

"Don't get your panties in a wad, darlin. It's just a minor set back. Kitty is tracking down new leads as we speak," he informed.

"This is completely unacceptable. It is taking far too long to get this Lex situation under control," she said sounding very displeased.

"What the hell do you want me to say, Emma? Storm and this team are doing everything possible to find that Luther, but it's starting to look like he has fallen off the face of the earth. Everything he has managed to pull off has been by someone other then him. He is pulling the strings," he growled.

"If he is pulling his strings, then find out who where the hell the damn puppets are," she said scathingly. "I will use Cerebro on my end to find something that might aid you in your search."

A long pause passed before Logan finally sighed impatiently.

"Was there somethin' else on yer mind, Frost?" he asked slowly.

Emma grimaced.

"I am surprised that Ororo has been such a disappointment in the execution of this mission," she started, "Usually her performance in the field is extraordinary."

"It ain't her fault, Frost," he interrupted curtly.

Emma continued on as if he hadn't spoken.

"What it sounds like to me is that she does not have a firm grip on the situation," she said stiffly.

"Well you're wrong," he said stiffly.

"Is she distracted?" Emma asked bluntly.

Logan shifted slightly uncomfortable. He knew that Ororo wasn't operating at the top of her game, but that fact had nothing to do with the reason why Lex's whereabouts and experiments remained elusive.

"She's doing the best she can given the situation. Back off," he advised sharply.

Emma scoffed rudely.

"Stop defending her, Logan. Your loyalty is duly noted, but if she is not being an effective leader in the field, she needs to be replaced," she said firmly.

"She is capable of executing this mission. We just need to find another lead," he started.

"If she can't get the job done, then perhaps she should return back to the school and let Remy take her command," she snapped.

"You can't fucking do that," Logan warned with a low growl.

The blonde narrowed her icy blue eyes annoyed.

"Watch your tone, Wolverine, and don't you dare tell me what the fuck I can or cannot do. As the headmistress and of this school, and with Scott being the leader of the Xmen, you and I both know that I can do whatever I want as long as its for the good of the team. If Storm has not managed to complete the mission in forty eight hours, I want her to report back to the school and have LeBeau step in her place. He is co captain of the team on this mission and so he shall naturally assume her command," she said simply.

"Damn it, Emma, are you really that heartless? It's no big secret that those two are goin through a rough spot and if you take away Storm's command, she and Gambit may never recover from it. Are you willing to risk that?" he demanded angrilly.

Emma expression remained neutral.

"That is not my problem Wolverine, and it should be none of your concern either. We are not going to waste our time and recourses to help her little friend when we have bigger situations that need our situation here in New York," she growled coldly.

"Does One Eye know that you are doing this?" the feral asked suspiciously.

Emma laughed condescendingly.

"Scott is my husband, but I am running this entire operation. When I give the orders, its your job as well as the others to follow them. I do not answer to him and I most definitely don't feel the need to explain any decisions involving _my _team to you," she said evenly before cutting the video feed short before he could argue any further.

"Bitch," he grumbled underneath his breath as he shut down the communication portal on his end of the laptop.

His head jerked up abruptly at the sound of footsteps creaking against the hardwood floor behind him. His tension disappeared immediately once he saw that it was only Clark. The farm boy was wearing a sheepish expression and his face was slightly tinted red.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear. I hope that I'm not getting you and Ororo into too much trouble with your team back home," he said worried.

Logan chuckled softly as he flopped down in the comfortable solid blue sofa in front of the empty fire place, and crossed his ankles in front of him.

"Don't lose any sleep over it, kid. Emma is known more for her bark then her bite. When it comes to having people skills, she makes me look like your average socialite," he smirked causing Clark to laugh.

"Today was pretty rough," he sighed heavily.

Logan nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it was incredibly frustrating. I really wish you had some beer around-," he started.

Before Logan could finish his sentence, Clark had disappeared and returned three seconds later holding a case of Budweiser's.

Logan grinned in a rare s how of appreciation. Although he would never admit it out loud, the kid was starting to grow on him.

"Thanks, kid," he murmured before popping one open and flopping down on the couch.

The two men sat together in silence before Clark began to speak softly.

"I don't want Ororo losing everything because she is trying to help me. It seems like ever since the day she saved me from t hat Russian prison war camp, I have caused nothing but trouble in her life," he said quietly.

"If you are worried about Emma, don't. She's just blowing hot air. As far as Ro and the Cajun are concerned there was trouble in paradise long before you made your reappearance back into her life. You can let yourself off the hook, kid," he said as he took a long swig of his strong brew.

Logan had thought that he had ended the conversation, but apparently Clark wasn't done expressing his worries aloud.

"What if that Emma has a point? Ororo could be helping people who truly could use you guys help instead of chasing down my ghosts and doing what I should have done with Lex a long time ago," he said sounding remorseful.

Logan rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Emma can make all the demands she want but I know Ro ain't leavin until she finished when she came here to do," he said gruffly.

"But-," the Kryptonian started, but Logan quickly cut him off.

"Listen, Kent. I trust Ro's judgment. She believes that you are in danger with this Lex character running loose out their and she is the type of person who would go to the end of the world protecting her friends and those she care about. Ororo is doing what her instincts her telling her to do, and I trust her instincts," he said gruffly.

Before Clark could say anything else, the sound of someone else entering the room caused him to look up startled to find the Xmen's resident hacker standing in the threshold of the room.

"Have you guys seen Ororo? I need to talk to her. It's really important," Kitty exclaimed urgently.

Clark shook his head and smiled apologetically.

"No, we are still waiting for her to come back from Metropolis with Chloe," he informed.

Clark's statement caused Kitty's face to fall and Logan immediately got the sense that something was wrong.

"What is it, Kitty? What's wrong?" Logan asked concerned.

The brunette forced a smile. It wasn't going to be easy to tell them what they were about to hear, but she knew that she had no choice but to tell them. They needed to know.

"I have something to show you, and you're not going to like it," she warned cautiously, "I have evidence that there is a saboteur among us."


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: Enjoy and Review =)**

_Bam! Bam! Bam!_

Lex wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he threw furious punches at a durable punching bag in the exercise room that Essex had sat up for him to recover in. The bald billionaire still couldn't believe how fast his body had went from feeling broken and battered, to feeling like he was in the best shape of his life. There were no physical signs of his prior injuries and he felt a strength and vigor of life surge through him that he had never experienced before. As he took another swing at the rocking punching bag, his eye caught the clock on the wall and he noted with a proud grin that he had been working out non stop for three hours. His current endurance was more impressive in that moment then it had ever been in his entire life, and t he best part was that the doctor planned to make him even more stronger and invincible. He just had to make sure that his body was strong enough to handle the pending transformation.

He was preparing to give the weight bench across the room a work out, when the soft of a soft buzz shrieked through the atmosphere, letting him know that someone was entering the room. Looking over his shoulder, he smirked as Sinister walked in carrying a silver tray filled with needles and sharp looking medical instruments.

"How are you feeling today, Alexander?" Nathaniel Essex asked gruffly as he began to place tabs on Lex's chest hooking him to some machine that would monitor his vitals.

"I feel amazing. In fact I was thinking about getting some fresh air and head out for a little while," he suggested cheerfully as he grabbed the crispy white t-shirt of his bed before slipping it over his sweat drenched body once the doctor's test had been complete.

"And just where do you _think _you are going?" he asked smirking as he inserted an needle into Lex's arm and began to withdraw blood.

"I have some personal things to take care of. It shouldn't take more then a few hours," he paused before smirking deviously, "Or maybe it will."

While exercising, Lex had managed to release some of the excess of testosterone that he had built up inside of him, but he felt he needed something more. He needed a woman.

During the rough days he had spent undergoing massive surgery and a painful healing process, there had been one thing that had kept him going. It was his constant thoughts of a beautiful woman. His lips nearly twitched into a fond smile as he thought about the raven haired angel with eyes that could melt even the most coldest of hearts. While not a lot of things manage to slip through the walls of stone that surrounded his heart, he could admit that Lana Lang had been the one of a very few that had managed to break through.

For a small moment in time he had truly believed that she may have loved him to, or had been learning to, but that all changed when he had betrayed her by manipulating her pregnancy. After Lana had learned what he had done, all the warmth and compassion that she had carried in her beautiful eyes had disappeared forever and had been replaced with a look of hate and disgust. She saw him as a monster who was far undeserving of any sort of redemption, and while he had learned to cover up the massive hole she had left in his heart when she had left him, he still carried a soft spot for her.

He wished he could see her again, if only for a moment. He wondered if Lana saw the new and powerful man he had become, would she be impressed? Even if there was the possibility that he would never lay claim to her heart again, he didn't mind settling for laying claim to her bed. He remembered how it felt to make love to her and inhaled sharply as memories began to flood over him. Her innocence that was conveyed through her angelic like smile to the world definitely wasn't mirrored in her feisty passionate love making between his fine silk sheets. It gave him perverse pleasure to know that while Clark Kent had been morally superior to him, he had been screwing the one woman that Clark had ultimately desired. The very thought caused his manhood to twitch slightly in the light grey sweat pants he was wearing.

Sinister took notice of the physical reaction that Lex Luthor was having and smirked slightly amused. It was expected and not too surprising that the billionaire was eager to scratch a particular itch due to all the pinned up energy he had, but Nathaniel knew for the sake of the mission, his scratching would have to wait. They were slightly behind schedule as it was, and if everything was going to go off without a hitch tomorrow night, Lex needed to leave behind all distractions, and focus on the task at hand.

"Your carnal urges are going to have to wait until tomorrow night, Lex. If you want to be at your maximum potential, there are some sacrifices that are required of you," Sinister reminded.

Lex gritted his teeth in deep frustration. He felt as if he was going to explode at any given minute, but he begrudgingly realized that the doctor had a point. His physical urges could wait until after their plan was carried out.

"Well at least humor me with what you have planned. I couldn't help but notice that you have been quite secretive for the past few days. What's going to be our next our next course of action?" he asked curiously.

"As you may already know, there is a major charity function that is taking place tomorrow night at Bell Reeve. Given the nature of what the institution holds there, I plan on taking my fair share of the fittest and the most powerful of the patients inside the meteor infected institute. Once I manage to get their individual DNA, I will enlist the more powerful ones to serve in my army, and those that are weak and who tries to refuse will be discarded ," Sinister informed darkly.

Lex frowned confused.

"Why go through all that trouble? I mean I have plenty of meteor infected subjects in my lab. Why don't you just use them?" he asked.

Sinister inhaled sharply. Obviously Lex had no idea of what had taken place earlier that afternoon. Usually Lex would find some time during the day to watch the news on the small T.V lab, but ever since the Kryptonite had accelerate his healing process, Luthor had taken refuge in the exercise room, obsessively training hard to make his body physically superior to Clark Kent's.

Nathaniel sighed heavily.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is something that you need to know," he started slowly.

Lex could tell by the expression on Sinister's face that he was about to hear some bad news.

"What is it? What happened?" he asked curtly.

All three of your warehouses were completely destroyed," he said reluctantly.

Lex narrowed his eyes evenly.

"What do you mean destroyed?" he asked slowly.

"Apparently, someone took the liberty of blowing up all of your warehouses. According to the investigation, the only thing that managed to get out before the explosions were the meteor infected test subject. The Director of Bell Reeve has confirmed that his institution had taken them all in as patients," he informed.

Nathaniel Essex expected this piece of news to enraged the billionaire, but he was surprised when Lex simply smirked appearing completely unfazed.

"This does not upset you that all you research and experiments are gone?" he asked surprised.

Lex shrugged casually.

"No, why should it?" he asked innocently.

When he saw the baffled look on Essex's face, Lex sighed exasperated before explaining his reasoning.

"Doctor, I don't compliment people very often, but let me just say that my ability to stand here in feeling stronger then I have felt in my life is a testimony to your genius work. Those warehouses mean little to me now as I stand on the brink of being a very powerful and invincible man. You are far beyond being advance in your research. The only thing you need is the meteor infected and I'm trusting that you already factored that into your plan for tomorrow night. I know that Clark was behind the demise of my warehouses and while he **costed **me a few millions of dollars, he did do me a favor by saving me the manpower and the time of having to do it myself," he said casually.

Nathaniel opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, the other man had turned his focus towards the weight machine. Watching Lex head back into his exercise routine, Nathaniel sighed heavily. Staring down at the invitation to the charity event at Bell Reeve in his hand, he knew that tomorrow night his plan had to be flawless if he was going to achieve what he sat out to achieve. He needed access to the most powerful meteor infected in order for his ultimate genetic project to be complete. Realizing that there was a lot more work to be done, he shot one last glance at Lex before heading back to his lab to finish preparation for tomorrow evening.

It was late into the evening when Chloe and Ororo finally made their way back to the Kent's residence. As Chloe shut off the engine to the car, Ororo couldn't help but sigh . She was exhausted from the activities of the day, but she knew that she couldn't rest until she came up with another plan on how to go about finding the whereabouts of Lex Luthor. The more time that she spend pondering over how much time had past since Lex had gone missing, the more worried she became. The weather witch knew that by now they should have picked up some trace of whether or not he was alive, but lately all they had been able to do was repeatedly come up empty handed.

As she climbed out of the vehicle with Chloe, she began to think that maybe Clark asking her to come back to Kansas was a mistake. So far she hadn't done a thing to get them any closer to learning what had become of the dangerous billionaire then when she had first arrived in Smallville. There wasn't anything that she wanted more then to keep Clark safe, but she was beginning to doubt her ability to do such a thing. As she slowly became lost in her thoughts, she didn't noticed the blonde observing her concerned. Ever since Chloe had revealed the fate of the warehouses to Ororo, she the white haired woman had been more withdrawn and quiet then usual. Chloe wasn't a mind reader, but her grim expression said it all and the fact that the Ororo was currently blaming herself for her mission failing made Chloe squirm with guilt. The entire ride back to Smallville, Chloe had been internally agonizing over her decision to the fact that she knew Lex was alive a secret from the others. While she knew that she was only doing what she had to do to protect Clark, that excuse did little to nothing to ease her conscience.

As the two women made their way towards the house, Chloe tried attempting an conversation with the other woman in order to silence her overwhelming guilt.

"You've been pretty quiet on the entire ride back from Metropolis. Is everything ok?" Chloe asked gently.

Ororo tried forcing a smile but failed miserably.

"I just cannot help but think that I could be doing more to find Lex. If he slips through my fingers and we lose all traces of him, there will not be anything any of us can do to protect Clark. I know he asked me to help him, but I feel…I feel as if I am failing him," she said quietly.

"If it wasn't for you and your team, we wouldn't have uncovered as much information as we have," Chloe tried weakly.

Ororo smiled faintly, but her expression showed that she was entirely convinced with the former reporter's statement.

"Yes, I know, but I cannot help but feel that we should have learned something critical by this point. I feel that there is something missing that I am not seeing," she said softly as frustration began to slowly creep into her voice.

Chloe shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling a great sense of discomfort as she noticed the despair and disappointment etched in the beautiful black woman's face. She wanted nothing more then to be honest with Ororo, but she was afraid. She knew once she revealed what she had done, there would be a lot of people who would be angry and betrayed and she knew that while she had hid what she had known to protect Clark, the others wouldn't see it that way. She swallowed deeply wondering how she managed to get herself tangled in such a mess.

Stopping outside of the door, Chloe inhaled sharply before turning towards the weather witch. She couldn't keep this up anymore. In the beginning she thought she could do everything in her power to find Lex, but seeing Ororo's strong reaction the warehouses being destroyed caused her to second guess herself. She knew that while her intentions had been good, she had bitten off more then she could chew and while she had been dreading this moment, she knew that it was time to come clean and confess to both Ororo and Clark what she had done.

"Ororo, there is something that I need to tell you," the blonde started quietly, but she was interrupted when the two women heard angry voices arguing coming from inside.

Before she could finish her sentence, Clark came walking out of kitchen door with his eyes and face darkened with anger. All the blood drained from her face as she stared at her best friend who was starring at her with a look that she had never seen in his eyes. He was filled with rage. Pure rage. She realized that he had finally learned what she had done. A part of her was relieved that the secret was out and she no longer had to lie anymore, but the other apart was scared and worried what her deception may have done to their close friendship. She opened her mouth to speak, but instantly stopped when Clark's piercing glare fell on her.

"How could you do it, Chloe?" he asked quietly.

Clark was visibly shaking with anger as he glared coldly at Chloe. There was an intense look of fury etched deep in his cold chilling expression that caused Ororo to take a step back feeling slightly frightened.

"Clark wait," Chloe pleaded desperately, but before she could say anything further, she blinked and he had disappeared.

Ororo watched the exchanged between Clark and Chloe with a baffled expression on her face. She was suddenly getting a feeling that something horrible had taken place and before she had the chance to get an explanation from Chloe, Oliver stormed out of the farm house. Spotting the two women, he quickly approached them with a somber look on his handsome face.

"They know, Chloe. They found out that we lied about everything."

"I-I don't understand," she tried but Oliver cut her off impatiently.

"It's over, Chloe. Kitty found out what you were up to and when she confronted everyone about this, I decided to come clean, and I did my best to do damage control. When Clark found out that we knew about Lex being alive this whole time, he was a bit upset," he said stiffly.

Chloe felt the blood drain from her face as she shifted uncomfortably under the weather witch's chilling glare.

"I wanted to tell you," she cried desperately.

"Is this true?" Ororo asked stunned.

"Ororo, if you give me one minute, I can explain everything. I swear," she tried, as her bottom lip trembled dangerously.

"What is there to explain, Chloe? Not only did you lie, you went behind not only my back, but Clark's back and kept something from us that you had no right keeping," the weather witch snapped irate.

Chloe felt tears wet the corner of her eyes as she immediately felt ashamed.

Ororo shook her head feeling betrayal, anger, and the strongest emotion...hurt. She couldn't believe that three of the people she felt that she could completely trust, would do something like this. Not only had they lied to her face and risked the mission, they had jeopardized Clark's safety by working against her.

Chloe shook her head while blinking back tears of regret.

"It wasn't like that, Ororo. All I ever wanted to do was protect Clark, and I'm sorry that Oliver and Anna had to be dragged into this. It was never their idea, nor their motive to deceive you," Chloe said quietly.

"Anna knew that Lex was alive?" Ororo asked shocked.

Chloe nodded tearfully.

"She wanted to tell you, but I convinced her that keeping it from you was the only was the only . She hated the fact that she had to deceive you," Chloe tried defending Anna's behavior, but Ororo wasn't listening. She was angry. Very angry.

Ororo had been stunned to find out that Chloe and Oliver had kept this a secret, but to know that Anna had been involved was completely shocking. This was the last straw. She finally had enough of Anna's antics and it was time to deal with the other woman once and for all.

As the tension in the atmosphere continued to escalated, Oliver swallowed deeply, silently wishing he was anywhere else in the world then being in that moment. He knew that despite Chloe being the main reason they were in the mess they were in in the first place, he owed it to her to continue stand behind her and defend her.

"Anna can explain her part to you w hen she is ready. What Chloe did may have been deceitful, but she did it for all the right reasons. She didn't want to dirty your hands or Clarks," he explained patiently.

"That is not an excuse .Excuse me," Ororo said evenly as she brushed past Chloe and Clark and headed into the living room where Kitty, Logan, Remy, Anna and Oliver were dwelling in.

"Give me the room," she ordered stiffly as she locked her steely gaze on the brunette who was doing everything possible to avoid making eye contact with her.

Kitty quickly scrambled from the room with nervous and uncomfortable expressions on her face, but Logan and Remy remained.

"Listen, Stormy, Remy knows y' angry, but perhaps you should take a moment to calm down," he started.

Ororo glared at her fiancé in disbelief. She couldn't believe that he was foolish enough to stand between her and Anna. Despite her anger, she clenched her teeth tightly together and forced herself to remain calm.

"Stay out of this Remy. This is between me and a soon to be _ex _member of this team," she warned dangerously.

"Ororo, please," Anna tried desperately.

"Be quiet," she thundered causing the other woman to stop mid sentence, "I will let you know when I am ready to deal with you."

"Ah think Ah at least deserve the chance to explain myself," Anna started.

Ororo scoffed rudely.

"Whatever you have to say does not matter, Anna. We both know that I have always had mixed feelings about you, but against my better judgment I put my feelings aside so that we could work together and perhaps become friends. Obviously, I was wrong," she said evenly.

Anna turned to walk out the room, but Ororo's next statement stopped her.

"I cannot believe that I trusted you for one second. How could you be such a manipulative and deceitful person?" Ororo hissed betrayed.

Anna blinked back hot tears of anger. Even though Anna knew that Ororo had every right to be angry with her, Anna didn't think it was fair that she was getting the majority of the blame. Especially when she wasn't the only one on the team that had betrayed the leader of the Xmen.

"Maybe you wouldn't lie to those closest t' y' but if we are bein' real honest here, Ah ain't the only person in this room that has been lying to you," she cried emotionally.

Ororo narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"What is that suppose to me?" she challenged the other woman with a dangerous look in her eye.

When she didn't answer, Ororo moved closer to her with a dangerous look in her blue eyes.

"Don't be coy, Anna. Tell me, who else have you turned against me on my team?" she demanded angrily.

Suddenly something inside of Anna snapped.

"First of all, it ain't exactly your team anymore, sugah'," Anna said stiffly.

"Excuse me?" Ororo asked in disbelief.

Logan quickly decided to intervene. He knew that Ororo was a woman who prided herself on self control, but at that moment she looked as if she wanted to bitch slap Anna, and even though he knew that the southern belle deserved nothing less, he couldn't let Ororo act on an impulse that she would come to regret later.

"Emma heard about what happened with the warehouses and after she learned that ...she thought the team needed new leadership. She gave your command to Lebeau," Logan informed gently.

Ororo's eyes clouded with anger.

"What about Anna? Emma is allowing her to stay despite the fact that her, Chloe and Oliver were the ones responsible for our mission failing in the first place?" she demanded in disbelief.

Logan nodded reluctantly.

"I will be the first to say that this situation is more then a little fucked up, and I don't agree with it. Kitty and I both are still willing to follow your lead. As far as I'm concerned, you are still the leader of this team and if Emma has anything to say about it, I'll handle her," he promised firmly.

Logan's loyalty made Ororo feel somewhat better, but not a whole lot. Trusting Logan and Kitty was something that was like second nature to her. She knew them both intimately and well enough to know that the last thing either one of them would do was betray her. Despite feeling comforted by this fact, she still couldn't push past the pain of feeling betrayed by Anna.

"Maybe Emma's right. Maybe I do not deserve to lead this team," she said quietly.

"Don't say that," Logan growled.

"If my own team mate can trust me enough to make an paramount decision, what business do I have leading anyone?" she asked grimly.

Before he could answer, she turned away from him sadly and faced Remy and Anna.

"Was all of this some orchestrated plan to get back at me for being with Remy? Are you really that petty?" Ororo asked softly.

Anna blanched taken back. She knew that she had messed up big time, but Ororo was taking things too far. She would have never dreamed that Ororo would take this so personal, and frankly she was offended and upset. After everything that happened, Anna tried to explain that she had lied to protect Clark, but it was almost as if Ororo rather attack her character, then see her point of view. While the brunette knew that she didn't have a leg to stand on to defend herself to Ororo, she wasn't prepared to sit by idly while Ororo made all sorts of vicious accusations.

"To be honest, it wasn't like that at all Ororo. Do us both a favor and don't stand there pretend that you were ever my friend," she said curtly.

Ororo clenched her teeth trying to control the fury that was growing within her.

"You have some nerve, Anna. I have done everything in my power to be friendly towards you despite the fact that I always knew that you still harbored some feelings towards Remy," she snapped.

"If you were any kind of friend, you would have never had taken him from me in the first place," Anna exploded emotionally.

Ororo smiled bitterly.

"So finally, the truth comes out. This was what it was all about, "she spat viciously, "For the record, I did not take him away because he never belonged to you. You made that perfectly clear when you had left him to die in Antarctica."

Ororo's statement caused a stunned silence to fall over the room. Even Remy and Logan were shocked that something so harsh and vindictive had come out of the weather witch's mouth.

"How dare you?" Anna whispered thickly.

Ororo knew that what she had said had been nothing short of spiteful and cruel, and despite feeling a twinge of guilt, she was far too angry to apologize at that moment.

"I did not take him from you. He walked away on his own free will. You need to get over him leaving you. It w," she said scathingly before turning to walk away before she lost her temper.

"Yeah, and Remy almost walked out on you," Anna blurted out causing her to pause in her retreat.

The moment the words had escaped her lips, Ororo made eye contact and what she saw in her fiancé's eyes made her heart plummet to the pit of her stomach.

"Anna, stop. Dis ain't de time femme'," Remy warned hoarsely, but it was too late. The cat had been released from the bag.

"Is this true?" Ororo asked starring at Remy steadily, "You were willing to walk away from us despite everything that I had given up for us?"

"It was dat night we had dat horrible fight. During de nights I was gone, I was considering something that should have never crossed my mind," he started softly.

His admission made Ororo's heart skip a beat. She had a feeling that she was about to hear something devastating and despite her gut instincts, her face remained stoic as she continued to listen. Swallowing deeply, she forced herself to remain calm as she stared him straight in the eyes, searching for an answer.

"What is it you are you saying, Remy?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"If it wasn't for me, Remy would have disappeared out of your life and he would have never looked back," Anna finished softly for him.

Remy sighed heavily.

"I had a fleeting moment of doubt, but dat was back then. Remy loves y' mo' then anythin, and he wouldn't dream of goin' nowhere," he tried.

Ororo felt as if she was trapped in some horrible nightmare, and while she wished she was, she knew that the hellish situation was very much her current reality. Not only had three people she had thought she could trust betrayed her, she was stripped of her team and what was worse was that she had found out her relationship with Remy hadn't been as secure as she had once believed it to be. Shaking her head, she suddenly understood what had driven Clark to disappear from the house. She was suddenly feeling as if the room was closing in around her and she knew she had to get away so she could breathe properly and gather her thoughts. She was turning to walk out the house when she felt someone grab her hand.

Looking up, she felt her heart hardened as she stared into the desperate eyes of her lover. She could tell that he was preparing to deliver some profound well though out apology, but the truth of the matter was that she wasn't in the mind frame to listen to whatever it was he had to tell her. Snatching her hand out of his gentle grip, she glowered at him seething.

"Do not touch me," she warned dangerously.

"Stormy, please. Remy was a fool and he is very sorry. It was a stupid mistake that I made a long time ago. We can move past dis," he pleaded quietly.

She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"There is not any way of moving pass this, Remy. I was just wasting my time with someone who never really loved me when I could have been with someone who would have. The only fool here is me. Obviously I have been a little too trusting," she said quietly before removing her engagement ring and placing it in the palm of his hand.

Ororo turned around and and came face to face with Logan and he wasn't surprised to find her beautiful aquatic blue eyes filled with tears and anguish. While he knew that Ororo was the mistress at controlling her emotions, he could see that the events of the evening had hurt her deeply to the core. The look of betrayal was etched so deeply into her face, that Logan felt his heart twist in his chest. He hated seeing her in any pain, and while he wanted to do everything he could to make things right, he knew that the only people who could do t hat were the objects of her disdain, and the other had left.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked his voice filled with concern.

"I am sorry, Logan. I just need to be alone right now. Excuse me, " she mumbled before flinging open the kitchen door and disappearing into the night leaving Clark and the feral man starring after worried.


	21. Chapter 21

**An: Review or else...lol **

Back at Xavier's School for the Gifted, Scott Summers was settling into the black leather chair in the recreational room preparing to watch a much anticipated hockey game. As he slouched down into the couch, he opened the bottle of beer he had stolen from Logan's secret stash, before propping his feet up on the arm of the couch with an relaxed smile. Even though he knew that Emma hated to catch him with his feet up on any of the furniture in the school along with any form of alcohol in his possession, he decided to make an exception seeing how he had been on his feet for most of that day. While he loved being a teacher at the school, Scott sometimes felt that his nerves and patience were growing short after dealing with a bunch of rowdy, rambunctious students with mutant powers on a day to day basis. Scott knew that if the school's staff hadn't been already nearly depleted with the absence of several key teachers, he would have been taken a vacation a long time ago.

As he took a swig of beer, Scott made a bitter face. He made a mental note to inform Logan, once he returned, that his choice in beer was disgusting. Thinking of Logan and the other members of the deployed team, Scott began to wonder how the mission was going. The last he had heard from the feral man was when he had called Emma earlier that week to brief her. When he asked his wife how things were going, she assured him that everything was fine, and that team was making progressive in their mission. Putting the long neck down on the coffee table, he grabbed the remote and turned the volume up. The hockey game had barely gotten under way when he heard someone enter the recreation room. As he reluctantly tore his gaze away from the television screen, he looked over his right shoulder and was surprised to see a face he hadn't seen in months. Warren Worthington.

As the former X men walked into the room, trailed closely by Jubilee, he could tell by the look on Scott's face that his presence at the school was completely unexpected. Warren had left the school months earlier to oversee his father's corporation, but he had remained an honorary member of the team showing up for visit every now and then. While the winged man hadn't planned on showing up at the mansion for another two weeks, he had received a phone call earlier that night from Jubilee that had left him mortified and deeply disturbed. Immediately, Warren had rushed over determined to talk to Scott to confirm that what he had heard from Jubilee's mouth was in fact true.

Rising from the couch, Scott went to pleasantly greet the other man when he noticed that the expression on Warren's face was less then pleasant. Just staring into the other man's eyes, he could see that Warren was unhappy. Very unhappy. Before he could inquire what was wrong, the blonde haired man began to speak softly.

"I didn't mean to stop by unannounced, but I received some deeply troubling news about Ororo that I had no other choice but to come to you for clarification," Warren said stiffly.

Scott stared at him blankly. He had absolutely no clue as to what Warren was talking about. For the first time since the winged man entered the room, Scott noticed Jubilee's presence, and was baffled when he caught her glaring at him with an angry expression on her face as well as her arms were folded across her chest defensively.

"I don't know what you have heard, but Ororo is fine, and so is the rest of the team. May I ask you why you would think otherwise?" Scott asked startled.

Before Warren could explain, Jubilee interrupted rudely.

"You let Storm go back to Smallville to help Clark and not only was she stabbed in the back by the team she was working with in the field, she was stabbed in the back by you," the Asian girl said coldly.

Feeling the less then subtle hostility quickly filling the room, Scott immediately grew tense.

"I didn't let Ororo do anything. She is a grown woman. She made the choice to go organize a team, head to Smallville to provide aid to Clark. That was her choice. If you have any hostility about it, you should take it up with her," he said stiffly.

Jubilee folded her arms across her small chest and stared at him with a look of disgust.

"Aren't you at least concerned about what had happened over the course of the past two hours?" Warren asked mortified.

"I have no idea what either of you are talking about," Scott said startled.

Jubilee gasped softly.

"Oh my gosh...you seriously don't know?" she asked mortified.

Scott sighed exasperated as he shook his head vehemently.

"No, and I wish that one of you would start explaining what is going on," he said impatiently.

Jubilee exhaled softly before filling Scott in. As he listened to Jubilee explain how Anna was allegedly involved in some conspiracy with Chloe and Oliver, he felt a wave of disbelief wash over him. What the hell was going on in Smallville? While he was worried about the mission, his first concern was for his friend. He couldn't believe that this was the first time he was hearing about any of this. Hearing that Anna had known Lex Luther was alive and had kept it from the others had not only disappointed him, but angered him as well. Before he ponder on the matter any further, Jubilee began to speak again.

"I know that this doesn't have anything to do with , but Kitty told me that Ororo gave Remy back his ring and called off their engagement. She wouldn't go into details, but she said there was something highly inappropriate that had taken place between swamp rat and Anna," she said sadly.

Before Scott could pry any more information from Jubilee, the door to the room opened and he felt his jaw muscle's tightened as Emma walked in casually. Spotting Warren, she plastered a smile on her slender pink lips. Closing the door behind her, she walked over to the winged man and greeted him pleasantly.

"Someone told me that you were here. What brings you by for such a late visit?" she asked curiously.

Warren smiled at the voluptuous blonde coldly.

"I think you know exactly what I'm doing here. You had no right doing what you did to Storm. She is the leader of the X men. You have no right to take her position away from her," he said evenly.

Emma's icy blue eyes flashed with indignation and anger. She was getting ready to respond viciously to Warren, and Scott quickly interfered.

"Jubilee, Warren, can you give me a minute alone with my wife?" Scott requested quietly.

The Asian girl cast a dirty look in the blonde woman's direction before haughtily stalking out of the room with Warren close behind her. Once the door to the room closed rather roughly, Emma turned her glare towards Scott who's handsome face was darkened with anger.

"What did you do?" he demanded suspicious.

Emma stared back at her upset husband unflinching.

"I made a decision concerning my team," she said simply.

Scott stared at her in disbelief.

"This isn't just your team, Emma. I thought I made it clear that when you took the position of headmistress that we would discuss all matters concerning the X men,"

Emma glared at him balefully.

"Don't use that tone of voice with me, Scott. I didn't feel the need to ask you for permission to do what I thought was in the best interest of the X men when it was more then obvious what should happened," she growled angrily, "I made the right decision."

Scott stared at her in disbelief.

"I heard everything that happened. Anna and two others were responsible for the reason why we have yet to see any results from Ororo's mission. Why would you fire the only person who has an expressed interest in finding the very man that could ruin Clark and endanger this planet?" he demanded.

"Everyone knows that Storm has an ulterior motive for helping our friendly Kryptonian. Was it so wrong of me to assume the reasons why we were failing to see any results was because she was too emotionally invested in Clark?" she asked stiffly.

Scott stared at Emma incredously. He couldn't believe that his wife would actually believe that Ororo would jeopardize a mission because of some alleged emotional attachment she still had for Clark. While he had heard mild rumors about the weather witch still harboring feelings for the native Krytonian, Scott knew Ororo a little too well to know that she more integrity to allow something in her personal life to effect her professional life.

"Ororo have her priorities straight. That is more then I can say for you," he said hotly.

Emma inhaled sharply as she narrowed her eyes at her husband evenly.

"If she wasn't so emotionally invested in two men, do you care to explain to me how she allowed those working beneath her command was able to undermine her authority without her knowing?" she asked bluntly.

Scott clenched his teeth in frustration. He knew that while Ororo and Emma had a professional and civil relationship, his wife had never made it a secret that she lacked confidence in the wind rider's ability to lead. She never gave a reason, but Scott suspected that his wife was slightly threatened by Ororo's commanding presence in the school and never truly took a liking to the other woman. However, beneath the pettiness, Scott knew that Ororo wasn't responsible for the mess that had taken place in Smallville, and the fact that Emma was insisting that the weather witch should be held accountable wasn't sitting too well with him. While he felt slightly hesitant to go against his wife with the fear that he would reap consequences in his marriage, he couldn't in good conscience allow Ororo's rank to be stripped without challenging Emma.

Clearing his throat loudly, he stared at the beautiful blonde evenly.

"The fact that Ororo didn't have any knowledge of what Anna and her cwere up to doesn't give you a right to fire her. Can you imagine how she must be feeling right now? Not only have people in the field betrayed her, but due to your highly inappropriate actions, she feels that don't have any leadership, and that doesn't sit too well with me," Scott said coldly.

Emma stared at him stunned feeling a mixture of anger and hurt.

"I only did what I thought what I thought was right," she said defensively.

"Yeah, and because of that, I somehow have to undo what you have done, if that's even at all possible. When all of this is over, you are going to have to answer for a lot of things you have pulled over the past few days. I am angry that you went behind my back and did what you did. Ororo is the best thing for this team, and without her leadership, the chance of the others finding Lex is slim to none," he snapped angrily.

Emma was opening her mouth to explain, but Scott had already whirled around his heels and stormed off. As he stormed away from the room, he felt that he was practically steaming from the ears. He couldn't believe that his wife had been capable of being so deceitful. He knew that he would have to deal with her eventually, but his concern at the moment was Ororo. Learning everything that had taken place earlier that night, he knew that he had to do something to make things right for the weather witch, but he had no idea of what to do.

As he walked across the foyer towards the stairs leading to his bedroom, he noticed Warren and Jubilee standing close together near the front door. A frown marred his handsome face as he noticed that Jubilee had an overnight bag draped over her right shoulder. He couldn't tell what they were discussing, but whatever it was, it seemed pretty serious. For a moment, he felt like he was experiencing a sense of deja vu. Several years ago, this was the exact same scene that had greeted him when Ororo had went missing in Smallville, only back then, Remy had been the one who had chased after Ororo along with Jubilee and Warren.

"You have plans on going somewhere?" he asked Jubilee curiously.

She stared up at him stubbornly, with rebellion dancing on the surface of her jet black eyes.

"I'm going with Warren to Smallville. She need us," she said curtly.

Scott was about to object when Warren stepped forward with an warm smile.

"She didn't back down the first time when it came to running to the aid of the Wind rider, and I think both of us would be wasting our times trying to stop her yet again," he said amused.

The pair began to make their way out of the door when Scott stopped them abruptly.

Scott knew that he had to find someway to make things better, and in that moment he came to the sudden realization of what he had to do.

"Give me a minute to gather some things," Scott said stiffly, "I'm coming with you."

8888888

"Ororo!"

Clark called out the weather witch's name desperately, searching for any sign of the missing woman. As he searched his property frantically, he flinched at the sound of lightning striking the earth somewhere close by, causing the ground beneath his feet to tremble. Starring up the sky he watched warily as several purple lightning bolts dance across the ominous sky causing him to grow concerned. The sound of thunder was growing more louder with each passing moment indicating that the storm was going to get a lot worse before it got better. He knew that Ororo was wanting to be alone, but he had to find her before things completely got out of hand. Drenching wet from head to toe, he continued to walked around in the storm and despite the rain blurring his vision, he had every intentions of searching high and low until he found her.

As Clark continued his search, his mind drifted back to the last time he had seen the wind rider. He had stormed out of the house after learning about Kitty's revelation and had ran into her and Chloe outside on the porch. He had been so angry and betrayed that he had barely acknowledge Ororo when he had been lashing out at the other woman. He and Chloe had their share of falling out before, but this was different from the other times. When he found out that Chloe had been had been hiding the fact that Lex had been alive along and had intentionally hindered Ororo's and the X men's mission, he had never been as shocked and livid as he had been in his entire life. After he had taken off to clear his head, he had come back he had been greeted by a violent storm and the news that Ororo had taken off disappeared just as abruptly as he had after learning the shocking truth from her teammates.

A strong gust of wind suddenly brushed past him nearly causing him to stumble backwards. Debri was whirling all around him, and he could hear the animals in the barnyard complaining nervously at the intensity of the abrupt storm. Feeling like he had run out of options, Clark was preparing to check his house again when his ears perked up. His sensitive hearing had detected an distinct sound over the noise of the loud thundering of rain. Tilting his head, he focused and listened closer and realized that the sound was soft crying. Narrowing his eyes, he looked over his shoulder and realized that the sound was coming from the barnyard. Seconds later, he stormed into the barn, and was preparing to search the entire stables when he heard he noticed a dark silhouette upstairs in the loft. Moving quietly, he slowly walked up the stairs and was relieved to find Ororo standing near the window looking across the property with her back facing him.

Hearing his entrance, Ororo whirled around facing him with her eyes shining apologetically. Clark felt his heart tightened in his chest as he noticed that her dark face was wet with a mixture of tears and rain.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to lose control," she whispered thickly as she fought back fresh tears threatening to fall from the corner of her eyes.

There was compassion and understanding in Clark's eyes as he closed the distance between them as he made his way to her side. As the rain began to ease up, Clark combed his fingers through his wet locks pushing loose black strands of his hair out of his face that was obscuring his view of Ororo. Staring at the white haired woman, he couldn't help but be floored by what he saw. Her long white hair fell limp and slightly damp around her slumped shoulders, and tears mixed with rain danced down her quivering cheeks. Even when she was consumed with grief, she was still so incredibly beautiful.

"I'm ao sorry, Ororo. I'm sorry about Chloe, I'm sorry about Remy...I'm sorry about everything," he said remorsefully.

She smiled faintly as she stared off into the darkness bleak fully.

"You have nothing to apologize for Clark. It wasn't you who lacked faith in my leadership skills, and it wasn't you who lacked faith in my relationship," the weather witch said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Clark was stunned by her admission. He couldn't believe that Ororo was feeling as if she was responsible for everything that had taken place. Clark knew that Chloe, Oliver, and Anna's deception was something that had been out of her control. There was no way the wind rider could have known they were operating outside of her command.

"Look at me, Ororo. You have no reason to blame yourself. What happened was not your fault; its theirs. They should be the one feeling guilty, not you," he said firmly.

"What happened is an reflection of my leadership. I should have been aware that there were members of this team doubting my ability to make all of the necessary decisions. I failed to inspire confidence in those who are suppose to trust me to lead them into any situation," she said quietly.

Gazing at her beautiful devastated face, it was obvious to see that she was so deeply hurt, and her raw pain nearly crippled him. He would give and do anything to take away the pain away from her. Suddenly, he felt a force driving him to be closer to her and before he knew it, they were standing inches apart with their faces hovering dangerously close to one another. He could see the apprehension flash in her tear filled blue eyes as he reached up and gingerly removed some of her tears from her face with the gentle stroke of his finger. Her beauty was so intoxicating that he couldn't tear his eyes away from her dark lovely face . Moving slowly, he reached down and rested both of his hands lightly on her waist, drawing her closer until her body was pressed up against his. Her breathing grew shallow as he smiled down at her with a promise in his deep green eyes.

"How can you say you fail to inspire anyone? I am constantly inspired by you and the way you lead your team. Kitty and Logan both trust you unconditionally, and despite what Remy and Anna may have done, they trust you too. I'm not excusing what anyone did, but I think they realized that they made a mistake and are wishing that they can take it back. Especially since they seen how much they hurt you," he said gently.

His words of comfort made her blush lightly, but Ororo couldn't help but still feel the anger and resentment that Anna, Chloe, Oliver, and Remy's deception had caused her both professionally, and personally.

"I came here to help you find Lex and rid him out of your life permanently, but how can I do that now?" she asked quietly.

"I know that you are no longer apart of the team, but you and I can find Lex together," he said earnestly, "I trust you."

Ororo could tell from the warmth and sincerity in Clark's eyes, that he meant every word that he said and she felt touched. The way Clark was making her feel caused her heart to flutter lightly in her chest. Smiling appreciatively, she moved closer and placed a sweet kiss on his cheek before pulling away with a small smile.

"Thank you, Clark."

She could tell by the look on Clark's face that her kiss had been taken by surprise and a warm flush began to flood his face. Before she could say anything, he moved closer to her and Ororo shuddered as he reached up and rested his fingers at the nape of her neck as he trailed his lips from her cheek intending on returning her kiss.

Moving her head slightly, the white haired woman felt her breath being stolen away as his mouth tenderly molded against hers. As Clark's tongue tangled with hers, he felt his heart thundering his chest keeping in sync with the rain drops thundering down on the roof above them. Her lips parted slightly as she deepened the kiss while wrapping her arms around his neck. As they exchanged hot and passionate kisses, soft, sweet whimpers danced from her mouth as he pressed his body against hers firmly. Tearing his lips away from hers momentarily, he showered her face with soft kisses while whispering her name tenderly. He had missed her, and judging from the way she was returning his kisses, he could tell she had missed him too. Starring down into her blue eyes filled with anxiety and passion, he could tell that she was still hurting after her split with Remy, and while he knew that she was extremely vulnerable in that moment, he was more then willing to be there for her in whatever way she needed him.

Almost as if she had been reading his mind, she pulled away abruptly with a mortified look on her face. Before she could say anything, Clark smiled comfortly.

"It's okay," he whispered repeatedly as he embraced her tenderly, "I completely understand."

"If you want to stay here with me, I don't mind," he offered gently.

Ororo knew that staying with Clark was ultimately what she wanted, but apart of her was still clinging to the emotions that she had for Remy. She was preparing to turn Clark down politely, when she realized deep down she didn't want to. As much as she still cared for her ex fiancé, she wasn't sure that her and Remy sleeping her under the same roof was such a good idea. Staring at the couch Clark had fixed up with several pillows and some blankets, she smiled appreciatively before walking back towards him and joining him on the sofa.

She rested her head against his chest and Clark couldn't help but feel his pulse quicken at the nearness of the weather witch. Starring down at her relaxed figure, there was so much he wanted to tell her, but he knew that now wasn't the appropriate time. However he knew that when the right moment came he would assure her that after all the hurt and the betrayal she had just experienced, he would always be there for her and she will never have to worry about him ever having to betray her. As the storm finally came to an end, Clark heard a soft snore escape Ororo's lips and a smile crept across his lips. She looked so peaceful and beautiful with her eyelashes still wet with tears and her lips parted slightly. Wrapping his arms around her tighter, he held her close to him and less then several minutes later, he had fallen fast asleep as well.


	22. Chapter 22

**(Chapter Twenty Two)**

**AN: Sorry about the super delay...there will be more coming soon...**

The sounds of chickens clucking softly and roosters crowing loudly jolted Ororo out of her deep slumber abruptly. Stifling a heavy yawn, the wind rider sat up slowly before wiping the sleep from her eyes, struggling to remain conscious and alert. Inhaling deeply, she felt her stomach growl softly complaining of hunger as her nose caught the scent of something delicious lingering in the air. Feeling her mouth water, Ororo glanced around the loft, and was both surprised and confused to find that Clark, whom she had spent the night with, was nowhere to be found. As she combed her fingers t through her long, thick white mane, she noticed that the rain from the previous night had faded away and the weather was currently filled with golden sunlight and a gentle cool breeze that was pouring in through the opening of the loft. Smiling to herself, she realized that despite having a rather emotional and very intense confrontation the night before, she had had woken up that morning not only feeling refreshed, but happier then she had been in a long time . A huge part of her knew that falling asleep in Clark's comforting embrace had been a good reason for her good mood, but she was too prideful and too conflicted to ever admit that aloud. Sliding on her shoes sitting at the base of the couch, she stifled another sleepy yawn before making her way out of the barn and towards the house.

As she stepped outside, she couldn't help but notice how quiet and peaceful the farm seemed to be. Starring off in the distance, she watched several cows and horses grazed happily, and the sudden gust of wind was blowing gently caressing her soft skin caused her to smile warmly.. Despite the fact that things in both her personal and professional lives weren't going so well, she couldn't help but appreciate he beautiful day that laid ahead of her. Filled with a rare sense of joy and serenity, she hummed softly under her breath as she made her way towards the main house. Pushing the door opened, she was instantly found that the source of the delicious smell that she had detected earlier was coming from the kitchen. Curious, she made her way into the dining area and was surprised to find Clark in the kitchen standing over the stove. He was wearing faded jeans, a red and blue plaid collar shirt and he was barefooted.

Hearing someone enter the kitchen, Clark turned away from the bacon he was frying and smiled widely when he found himself face to face with Ororo.

"Good morning," he said greeting her warmly.

The weather witch returned his smile sweetly trying to fight the blush creeping up into her cheeks.

"Good morning," she murmured as she ventured deeper into the kitchen glancing around curiously.

Spread across the counters, their were a different variety of fruits, meat, beverages, and milk and juice. The radio was on and the sound of soft country music was pouring from the speakers of an old classic radio sitting on top of the refrigerator. Feeling her stomach began to rumble again, she forced her self to look away from all the delicious food and focused her attention back on Clark.

"Clark, this looks incredible," she gushed amazed, "Did you do all of this by yourself?"

He blushed and shook his head in the negative. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Kitty emerged from the pantry with several delicious food items in her arms. Spotting Ororo, the brunette grinned brightly.

"Good morning, Ororo! I hope you are hungry because Clark and I are making this totally awesome brunch. I have been dying to put my Rachel Ray skills to use. Can one of you hand me those frying pans on the counter next to you?" she inquired as she unloaded her arms filled with breakfast ingredient on the counter beside the stove.

As Clark went to help Kitty, Ororo couldn't help but feel amused at the sight of two of them working side by side to make a culinary masterpiece. The sight of one of her most adored students and a man who she was strongly attracted to in many different ways made her feel as if two different lives she had been leading were slowly merging into one. While she enjoyed the life she had back at the school for the gifted with her coworkers, students, and friends, Ororo couldn't deny that she was feeling more and more comfortable in Smallville with each passing day.

"This is all very sweet. Thank you both for taking the time to get up early and making break feast for everyone," she said kindly.

Kitty smiled warmly.

You don't have to thank us, Ororo. Besides, this wasn't actually meant for everyone on the team. It was really meant for you," she grinned before disappearing back down into the pantry.

Kitty's statement caused Ororo to stare at Clark surprised and she watched amused as he slowly began to blush.

The truth was that earlier that morning, Clark had woken up feeling completely worried about Ororo and concerned about the affects the previous night had over her. Even though he was hesitant to pry, he wanted to make sure that she was okay.

"Clark, what is she talking about?" the weather witch inquired with a curious smile on her lips.

"I woke up kind of early and ran into Kitty and enlisted her help into cooking this big breakfast. After the night you had, I thought that maybe you could use a nice home made meal to cheer you up a bit," Clark admitted softly.

Ororo couldn't help but to smile appreciatively. She was both touched and flattered that Clark had recruited Kitty into making breakfast , and while she knew that he could have simply spent seconds going to any part of the world to grab the meal, the fact that he had gone through so much trouble made the wind rider's flutter lightly in her chest.

As they stood together in a comfortable silence, Ororo felt a warm and strange feeling wash over her. She couldn't place her finger on what exactly what it was that she felt, but she knew that whatever it was made her pulse race rapidly and her palms sweat noticeably. Shoving her emotions to the side, she forced a smiled before staring up at him sweetly.

"Clark, I really want to t hank you for not only this nice break feast, but also for being there for me last night. I usually exercise better control over my emotions. I really hate that you had to witness me in a moment of vulnerability," she said embarrassed.

He smiled down at the flustered white haired woman tenderly.

"You don't have to thank me Ororo, or apologize. I know that what happened was terrible and you are only human. It's natural to feel that way you did. I only wish that there was more that I can do to help make you feel better," he said gently.

"Trust me, Clark. What you did for me last night, was more then I could ask for. You made me feel more then okay. You made me feel that despite the fact that I was surrounded by certain people who were lying and being deceitful, I could still trust you," she said quietly.

"I want you to know that you can always trust me. No matter what happens. I will always be here for you. There will never be a time where you won't find me there when you need me," he promised huskily.

Despite Clark's mounting feelings for the beautiful white haired woman in front of him, he knew that she still had to deal with her own mixed feelings involving not only him, but her ex fiancé, so he decided to change the subject.

"I was wondering that if you were up to it that maybe after breakfast, we could go horse back riding," Clark suggested hopefully.

"That sounds lovely," Ororo murmured with a sweet smile.

Even though the wind rider knew that it wasn't the appropriate time nor place to express her feelings for Clark, she knew that she couldn't continue to hide how she felt. Especially given the fact that the chemistry between them was becoming far more harder and much more complicated to deny. She could tell from the warmth and kindness in his beautiful blue eyes that he wanted more then friendship from her, and while that had frightened her in the past, in that moment it excited her. The kiss that they had shared the night before had not only been amazing, but it revealed to Ororo that what she felt for Clark wasn't just one sided.

"Clark, there is something that I need to tell you," she started softly.

Lifting his head slowly, he stared into her aquatic blue eyes warmly, and instantly, Ororo felt a deep flush cover her entire body.

"What is it?" he murmured curiously.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound soft laughter coming from outside of the kitchen. Looking over her shoulder, Ororo felt her smile fade as she watched her ex fiancé walk into the kitchen followed closely by Anna. Watching Remy and Anna walk into the kitchen together made Ororo heart sink to the pit of the stomach and almost instantly, the atmosphere in the kitchen quickly became filled with hostility and tension. From the looks of it, neither Remy and Anna seem to have gotten much sleep the night before, and that made Ororo suspicious and slightly disgusted. Even though she had been the one to end their engagement, she couldn't help wondering whether or not the two had spent the night together comforting one another after the explosive confrontation that had taken place the night before. Shaking her head, Ororo closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She knew that despite whatever lingering emotions she had for Remy, whatever time he spent with Anna was no longer any of her concern. If he had chosen to return back to the arms of his former love, then that was his business, not hers. Swallowing deeply, she pushed the uncomfortable thought to the back of her mind and turned her attention back to Clark.

Fortunately she was saved from the awkward and uncomfortable moment when a loud knock came from the front door. Following Clark into the front hall, he opened the door and they were both surprised to see Chloe standing there with an unreadable expression on her face.

"What are you doing here?" he asked evenly.

"There is something I need to address with you and the others," she said softly.

"Considering everything that happened Chloe, I really don't think that is a good idea," he started.

Ororo quickly intervened with a gentle smile.

"I think we should hear her out. I will gather the others," Ororo said quietly before walking off.

"Thank you," Chloe smiled faintly before following a silently brooding Clark into the living room.

Moments later they were joined by Logan, Remy, Anna, Ororo and Kitty. As everyone found a seat, Chloe stepped forward to address them with a nervous and pained expression on her face. The blonde felt tears burning the corner of her eyes, but she bit down on her bottom lips softly to keep them from falling.

"I know that I'm probably the last person that anyone wanted to see today, but there is something I need to say. I want to start off by apologizing for lying and deceiving not only Clark, but Ororo and the team as well. Some of you may not believe this, but I really am sorry for what I did. There is one thing you need to know. Oliver and Anna aren't to blame. I am. They only became involved because I convinced them that my plan was the right thing to do, and I was wrong for that. Not only did I jeopardize your mission, but I undermined your authority and I am really sorry for what I did," she said somberly.

Her apology caused Ororo's hardened expression to soften noticeably. Something about the guilt and the deep remorse in the other woman's eyes caused Ororo's anger towards her to slowly melt away. While she was still hurt and stunned by the deception Chloe had perpetrated with the help of Oliver and Anna, she realized that the blonde had only done what she had done with the best intentions.

"I appreciate your apology, Chloe. I really do. However, it is completely unnecessary for you to apologize for the actions of Anna and Oliver. They made the choice to go along with your plan and they have to accept accountability for their actions on their own. What you did was misguided, but I honestly believe you done it w the best intentions in mind," she said gently.

Chloe nodded tearfully feeling a smile of relief spread across her face. While Clark wasn't in as a forgiving mood as Ororo, she was glad that she had at least managed to make things right with Ororo. Clearing her throat, she reached into her bag and pulled out a thumb drive and her laptop.

"There was another reason that I came over. Last night I learned from a source of hers at Metropolis hospital that some Kryptonite that was stored in a secure area went missing," she started.

At the mention of the substance that he was deathly allergic to, a deep frowned marred Clark's lips.

"Why would someone want to steal kryptonite?" he asked confused.

Chloe sighed troubled.

"I was wondering the same thing myself until, I remembered that a lot of meteor freaks get their ability from being exposed to the alien substance. While we should be concerned with why someone would want to steal the kryptonite, the more pressing question is _who_, and I think we both know one person who has been known to have. I think that this is right up Lex's alley considering that we found the substance in his office," she reported.

Ororo smiled happily.

"This is great news Chloe. This may have been the closest that we have been to find Lex, yet," she said with an appreciative smile.

Chloe blushed and nodded eagerly.

"Fortunately, we also managed to get another big break. My source somehow managed to get her hands on the security footage from the day the Kryptonite had went missing. I recently installed a facial recognition software on the laptop and when I run his face through the program, hopefully we can get more answers to our multitude of questions once we learn our mysterious thief identity," she revealed.

After a few quick keystrokes, Chloe smiled triumphantly before facing the others.

"Finally...it's uploaded," she grinned excited as she angled the laptop screen for everyone to view, "Now we can finally see who are mysterious man might be."

As they peered at the screen, everyone watched silently as a mysterious man wearing a white made his way down an empty hall leading towards a secure area located near the south wing of the hospital. Minutes passed and viewing the small screen, the mysterious man in the video had yet to show his face. The silence in the room ended when Remy sighed annoyed.

"Remy doesn't see how viewin' the back of some homme's head is gonna help get us closer to finding Luthor," he grumbled impatiently.

"Put a cap on it, swamp rat. There's still three minutes left on the tape," Anna scolded softly.

Chloe suddenly let out a soft groan before she slapped her forehead lightly.

"Oh my gosh. I can't believe that I almost forgot this," she gasped, her bright pale green eyes wide with astonishment.

"Forgot what?" Logan asked gruffly as he turned his piercing gaze onto the petite blonde computer hacker.

"The night that I learned that Lex was alive, I overheard Tess Mercer say that it was a doctor had been the one who had taken him out of her people's custody. Im narrowing the search down of doctor's in the area and cross checking it with doctors who may have been on our favorite psychopathic billionaire pay role," she informed hastily as her fingers flew across the keys of here laptop furiously.

Clark scoffed in disbelief.

"You just happen to forget that Tess mentioned the person who kidnapped Lex from her custody was a doctor and you somehow you _failed _to connect that to the fact that this might be the same man in a white lab jacket was caught on tape stealing Kryptonite," he asked coldly.

Almost instantly, an uncomfortable silence filled the room, and sensing that things were about to take a turn for the ugly, Ororo quickly intervened.

"Clark, please. Do not be so hard on her. I understand that you are angry about what she did, but we need to put that behind us if we hope to have any chance of finding Lex," she advised gently.

Clark opened his mouth to respond when the sound of a strangled gasp cut him off. Looking up, he watched as Remy jumped back from the laptop almost as if he had seen a ghost. All the blood had drained from his face, and his hands were shaking noticeably. Stunned by the reaction her ex fiancé was having, Ororo peered over Chloe's shoulder down at the screen and suddenly she felt her heart leap into her throat causing her eyes to widen in horror.

"Oh mah god," Anna whispered stunned.

The Cajun mumbled something quietly in French before abruptly bolting from the living room. Before he had made his escape, Clark couldn't help but notice that the Cajun's face had been as white as a sheet. The fact that the members of the x men were all obviously disturbed by the sight of the man on the surveillance tape made Clark grow very worried.

"From the looks of it, I'm taking it that we won't need the facial recognition program to identify this man," Chloe stated softly as she stared at Ororo in confusion.

"That is not a man, Chloe," the wind rider said very quietly, "He is monster."

"What's the matter, Ororo? Who is he?" Clark asked gently.

Clark's question echoed in Ororo's head as she began to have flashbacks of several different encounters with the mad genetic scientist. Years ago, she had been the leader of an underground mutant congregation known as the Murlocks. Unfortunately the Murlocks had practically been wiped out when they had brutally attacked and only a handful of mutants had survived. While Ororo had known t hat it was Sinister behind it, she had been completely devastated and shock to learn Remy's part in it. It was because of this revelation that Anna had abandoned Remy in Antarctica to die after he had been placed on trial for his actions. While Anna had basically signed his death warrant, Ororo had been among a very few people that had found it in her heart to forgive him. Pushing that dark time period to the back of her mind, Ororo inhaled deeply before looking at Clark feeling numb.

"That...thing...that is on that video footage is Nathaniel Essex," she started before stopping abruptly, obviously too overcome with emotion to speak.

Sensing Ororo's emotional distress, Logan quickly came to her aid.  
"This creep is commonly known as Mr. Sinister. He's a genetic genius and chances are he is the reason why Lex is still alive," he explained stiffly with a dark expression on his face.

While Clark was concerned about the Xmen's reaction to the footage, he was more worried about Ororo. All the blood seem to have drained from her face and her usually calm and controlled posture was no longer apparent. Instead he noticed that she was trembling like a leaf. Seeing the extent of how distraught she was, Clark felt compelled to intervene and not thinking, he reached over and took her shaking hand in his own and held it firmly. Surprised, Ororo looked over at Clark and she smiled faintly before squeezing his hand gratefully. He had never seen the calm cool and collected woman so frightened. Whoever this man was obviously had a bad and horrific history with her and the other Xmen, and while Clark was curious as to

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

Ororo shook her head looking shaken and horrified.

"If we do not fnd Lex soon, things are going to get worse," she said grimly, "A lot worse."


	23. Chapter 23

**An: Sorry about this story being delayed so long. Haven't been writing in months and now I'm trying to finish all the projects I have in order to start new ones. Well hope ya'll enjoy this chapter**

While Logan and the other members of the team lounged around the living room devising a plan on how to locate Lex and Sinister, Ororo sat outside of the house on the porch steps lost deep in thought. For the past few hours her thoughts have been consumed with nothing but her troubled relationship with Remy, her budding romance with Clark, and her mission to find Lex and Sinister. The stress she was feeling from the mounting pressure of everything happening around her was slowly beginning to take its toll on her and it was becoming increasingly hard for the weather witch to keep her emotions from getting the best of her. Every fiber inside of her was being was screaming for her to take to the sky where she could always find peace and solitude. However she was painfully aware that time to herself was a luxury that she could not afford.

"How are y' holdin' up, cherie?"

The sound of Remy's gentle voice interrupted Ororo's train of thought and she instantly felt her heart skip a beat. Lifting her head slowly, she remained silent as he lowered himself down beside her on the stairs.

"I am fine," she said quietly.

"Don't lie to me, mon ami," he said gently, "Remy knows you better then that."

Starring over at her ex fiance, she felt waves of resentment and anger wash over her, and while she was tempted to give him a piece of her mind, she reluctantly with held her wrath. She knew that it was the appropriate time or place to unleash the anger she felt building towards the Cajun for the past forty-eight hours. Getting into an verbal altercation with him would only cause more tension and friction between them and that was the last thing that she wanted...or needed. Realizing that it would be far more easier and productive to calmly address her feelings rather then to ignore them, she inhaled deeply before staring at her ex fiance intently.

"I really wish you would have been honest with me, Remy. You should have came clean about the mistakes you made and trusted me to forgive you. Instead you did the one thing that you said you would never do, and that was lie to me," she said softly with hurt and anger in her voice, "Do you have any idea how deeply that hurt me?"

Remy felt his heart twist in his chest as he stared at her with deep remorse reflecting in his red on black eyes.

"Remy never meant to hurt you, Stormy. That is the last thing that he ever wanted to do," he whispered as he cupped her face in and gazed down deeply into her sad eyes, "Y' have t' trust and believe that."

Ororo felt her bottom lip tremble dangerously as she pulled away from his touch and glared at him tearfully.

"How can I believe anything that you say ever again?" she asked evenly.

"Cherie, y' know me. I may have made my mistakes, but I always loved you," he promised hoarsely, "I've always loved you, and nothing will ever change dat."

Judging from the pain and remorse in his red on black eyes, Ororo could tell that his apology was sincere and very heartfelt. While a part of her was moved by his words, she was nowhere near ready to forgive him. She realized that if she couldn't count on the man she loved to be completely honest with her, then who could she trust? Over the past few years she and Ororo had been through a lot and never once had she ever felt the need to question the validity of Remy's feelings for her. Now that she was aware of his deception, the weather witch couldn't help but question everything that she had ever felt and she wasn't sure how to handle the variety of emotions swirling around inside of her.

Blinking back tears, she stared up at the Cajun with a sad smile on her lips.

"Remy, I appreciate the fact you are trying to make things right between us, but I really need some time to think everything over," she said softly.

As she rose from the steps to return back to the house, the Cajun grabbed her right hand tightly and stared up at her with a helpless expression on his handsome face. The betrayal that he saw in the depth of her beautiful blue eyes made him sick to his stomach. Knowing that he had hurt her deeply made him feel a sense of self loathing and guilt. Ororo meant everything to him and the fact that there was a chance that he could lose her made hot tears sting the corner of his eyes. The love that he felt for the windrider ran so deep that he could feel it to the very core of his soul. He would do anything in the world to make her forgive him, but he knew that no amount of charm nor pleading would make her anger disappear anytime soon.

"I know dat an apology isn't enough t' make y' forgive me, but I just want you to know dis one last thing. I understand that you are going through a lot right now, but I want you to know that Remy never wanted your position as the leader of the X men. Remy knows how much the team means to you and he would never take that away. Please understand that while you may not want me in yo' life as yo' fiance, Remy won't abandon you or this mission. I promise I will see this thing through with you no matter what happens," he vowed softly as he moved closer to her.

Despite all of the anger and resentment that Ororo was feeling, Remy's sincere promise soften her her hardened expression noticeably.

"Thank you, Remy. That really means a lot to me," she murmured offering him a small smile.

Seeing that he was making progress, Remy decided to push his luck and brushed his lips across her knuckles before smiling at her flirtatiously.

"Remy only wish y' knew how much y' meant t' him," he said huskily as he gazed into her eyes tenderly.

Blushing deeply, Ororo opened her mouth to respond, but stopped abruptly when the screen door opened and Clark walked out onto the porch. Almost instantly Ororo pulled back from cajun with an uneasy smile on her face. Starring up at Clark, she could see that he was as she staring down at her with a mixture of concern and confusion. Judging from his bewildered expression, she could tell he had witnessed the last part of the exchange between her and Remy and not only did she feel very uncomfortable, she felt extremely conflict.

"Is everything alright, Ororo?" he asked softly while glaring at Remy coldly.

The atmosphere instantly became filled with tension and the body language of both Clark and Remy showed that both men were prepared to square off. Even though the weather witch knew that both of them were level headed and non confrontational men, she feared that at any given moment the hostility between them would come to a boiling point. Desperate to keep the peace between them, she quickly rose to her feet and stood between the two men nervously.

"Everything is fine, Clark," Ororo started.

"We appreciate yo concern, but this is a private conversation," the cajun interrupted stiffly as he rose to his feet and stood towering behind the weather witch almost possessively.

"Remy," she warned softly.

The charming thief's crimson on black eyes flashed with annoyance.

"What? De things Remy has t' say t' you is very personal, and it's none of his damn business," he growled agitated.

Clark frowned annoyed.

"She doesn't deserve to be lied to anymore, and when it comes to her well being, I'm afraid it is my business," he said evenly.

Remy took a threatening step in the Kryptonian's direction, but Ororo quickly intervened before things had the chance to get out of hand. She stared up at her ex fiance with a desperate yet warning look in her eyes.

"Etinne, please. Now is not the time nor the place," Ororo pleaded growing uncomfortable with each passing second.

Remy didn't seem to hear her as he continued to direct his fury towards Clark.

"Jus' who de hell do you think you are, Kent? Jus' because Remy made one mistake doesn't mean that dis is y' chance t' make a move on my woman," he snapped growing more angry with each passing second.

Clark blue eyes flashed annoyed.

"I wasn't making a move on Ororo. After you broke her heart, I did my best to try to make her feel better," he said steadily, "It seems like the only thing you can ever do is make her cry."

Clark's words only made Remy's anger intensified.

"Tryin' to make her feel better?" he asked evenly, "Really? In what way?"

"I don't' know what you are trying to imply, but I would never take advantage of Ororo. Whatever happened between us is none of your business," Clark said stiffly.

Remy's face darkened with anger as he turned away from Clark and glared down at the mortified weather witch. He could tell by the guilt that flashed across her dark and beautiful face that there was something that had happened between her and Clark that she wasn't telling him. His heart slowly began to sink to the pit of his stomach as his fears began to become a reality. Remy suspected that Ororo had sought comfort in another man's arms and while he knew that he didn't have any room to be angry, a part of him was deeply suspicious. Especially when it came to Clark Kent being anywhere near the woman that Remy loved.

"So something did happen?" he asked sharply.

Ororo closed her eyes feeling as if she was trapped in a horrible nightmare. She knew that if she didn't put an end to the conversation immediately, something very bad was going to happen.

"Remy, stop. This is not the time or the place to discuss anything that doesn't involve the mission . You and I both know that my first priority is to make sure Clark is safe, and that Lex and Sinister is stopped before they can exploit his secret," she tried explaining.

Ororo's words cut Remy to the core and he stared at her, his handsome face darkened with anger.

"Anna was right. Y' put dis homme' over everything in y' life, includin' dis relationship," he said bitterly.

Ororo narrowed her blue eyes at him angrily. She couldn't believe that he had the nerve to suggest that Anna knew anything about her relationship with either man. Suddenly the emotions she had been trying her hardest to suppress was slowly beginning to resurface and Ororo knew that it would be best to remove herself from the situation before things got a lot worse then what they already were.

"This conversation is over," she said coldly.

She turned to walk back into the house when Remy blocked her way seething.

The quiet yet present sound of thunder rolling in the distance was a warning that the weather witch was slowly becoming enraged, and while Remy was well aware of what Ororo was capable of when she was angry, he wasn't going to let her walk away until she acknowledged her feelings.

"Remy," Clark warned dangerously.

The cajun ignored the other man as he continued to glare at Ororo.

"I do not know how I can make this any more clear to you. There is not anything left to discuss, and that includes me and you. I have a job to do and I have every intentions of doing it," the white haired woman argued vehemently, "With or without you."

Remy moved closer and stared at her in a way that made her tremble slightly.

"Cut de act, Cherie, and jus' come clean," he snarled agitated, "Last night y' threw de engagement ring back in Remy's face and instead of givin' him a chance t' explain' y' fled straight into Clark's arms?"

Ororo swallowed back her tears, trying desperately to keep her emotions from spilling over, but it was becoming more difficult to do with every second that passed by.

"You should really stop and walk away before you say something that you are going to regret," she warned, her voice barely above a whisper as she glowered at him in contempt.

Remy shook his head and stared at her with a mixture of sadness and anger reflecting on the surface of his eyes.

"De only thing dat Remy regrets is dat he didn't leave when he had de chance," he said, his voice barely above a whisper,"Then y' would of had de chance t' be happy with your precious Clark."

Before Ororo could say anything else, he stormed off the pouch and disappeared towards the back of the house.

Ororo closed her eyes and shook her head. Her heart was racing like a hummingbird inside of her chest. The confrontation that she just had with her ex fiance was too much for her to handle in that moment. His accusations and rage had not only made her unravel emotionally but left her feeling like she was at the end of her rope.

"Ororo?

The weather witch slowly lifted her head and looked up to see Clark starring down at her with an intense look on his handsome face. There with so much tenderness and compassion in his eyes that it made some of the pain and the anguish that she was feeling disappear. Ororo knew that he was looking for the answer of whether or not she was okay and while she wanted to reassure him, she knew that Clark would see through her lie.

Fortunately she was saved from having to answer when the sound of a vehicle pulling into the yard caught her attention. Ororo's eyes widened in surprise as she watched an all too familiar blue SUV come to a complete stop. A surprised smile flashed across her lips as Scott, Warren and Jubilee slowly made there way out of the car. Temporarily forgetting about her emotional crisis, she walked over to where the trio was slowly making their way out of the car.

Jubilee greeted Ororo briefly before turning her attention towards the raven haired man standing behind the weather witch.

"Clark!"

The raven haired girl didn't waste any time rushing forward and greeting him with a tight hug.

"Hey, Jubilee. It's great seeing you again," he smiled flustered as he returned her embrace.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ororo asked startled as she approached Scott and Warren.

"We heard about everything that was going on down here, and we thought that you could use a little reinforcement," Warren explained smiling affectionately.

Ororo felt a warmth cover her face as she pulled back and stared up into the face of one of her oldest friends. After everything she had been through, it was nice to see the faces of three people whom she trusted explicitly. For the first time in hours, she felt a small glimmer of hope that things were actually improving and maybe she did have a snow ball's chance in hell of bringing down Lex and Sinister and getting though the mission without suffering a complete emotional melt down. Clark stepped forward and grabbed Jubilee's bags before facing Warren and Scott with a warm smile.

"You guys must be exhausted from the long drive. I'll help you get settled in," Clark offered pleasantly.

As Clark, Jubilee and Warren made their way into the house, Scott hung back to speak privately with Ororo.

"So what really brings you here to Kansas, Scott?" Ororo asked curiously with her arms folded across her ample chest, "I know that you just did not decide to take a road trip with Jubilee and Warren out of the blue."

Scott chuckled softly as he shook his head.

"You're right. I didn't. Actually I'm here because I heard about what happened and I want you to know that I am here to assist you in any way I can," he said softly.

Ororo forced a smile.

"Emma told you how badly I am failing as a leader on this mission and sent you down here to see if you would be more successful?" she asked dryly.

Scott inhaled sharply.

"I know that Emma did was underhanded and spiteful and I sincerely apologize for that. She had no right to try to hold you accountable for any of the mess that has been happening down here," he said apologetically.

Ororo sighed heavily.

"It would have been appreciated if she gave me a chance to explain myself before making a rash decision," she said quietly, "I guess the mission is now in Remy's hands."

Scott shook his head.

"You are not being relieved of your command, Ororo. Emma may think she calls all the shots, but she was wrong about trying to replace you and I'm here to make sure you remain as leader of this team," he said firmly.

Ororo felt a sense of gratitude as she smiled warmly at Scott. She knew that by him going against his wife wishes, it would undoubtedly cause problems and tension in their marriage, but she was glad that he was willing to do the right thing despite the consequences.

"You do not know how much that means to me. In order for us to complete this mission I need people who are on the same page of me and not on a completely different chapter," she said softly.

Scott Summers nodded in agreement.

"I agree, and just so you know, Jubilee was the one who filled me in on the incident involving Remy and Anna. I am sorry that you had your mission hindered. I promise you that you will no longer to worry about any of that happening. Not while I'm here," he assured firmly.

Ororo smiled appreciatively.

"Thank you, Scott, but what has been done is already done. Remy and Anna will be dealt with at a later time," she assured.

"I agree. Ororo, I don't mean to pry, but when I drove up, I couldn't help but notice that you and Lebeau were having some sort of altercation. Is everything okay?" he asked gently.

Ororo smiled sadly and shook her head. She could tell that Scott was genuinely concerned about her, and while she was reluctant to talk about everything that has transpired, she knew that he would find out the truth eventually, and she decided that she rather he hear it from her mouth.

"Remy and I are no longer engaged," she informed softly.

Scott stared at her with a shock expression on his face and his lips were parted as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Ororo," he said remorsefully, "I truly am."

After a long moment of silence passed, Scott stared at her with a comforting smile on his lips.

"I know that you don't want to hear this, but maybe it's for the best," he said quietly, "You have given Remy so many opportunities to do the right thing. You deserve to be happy Ororo."

Ororo could feel hot tears burn the corners of her eyes and she bit her bottom lip softly to keep her emotions hidden. Scott's statement had struck a nerve and while she knew that he was right, she wasn't willing to accept the painful truth which was that her heart was being torn in two men who meant a lot to her and at the end of the day, she had no idea of who she would chose. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she forced a smile as she stared at him desperate to get off the subject.

Scott opened his mouth to say something else when he was interrupted by the sound of the screen door flying open. Both Ororo and Scott looked up to see Kitty racing towards them with her face flushed and an excited smile on her face.

"I think we finally got he break we have been looking for," she announced eagerly.

Not wasting any time, Scott and Ororo followed the brunette into the house and into the living room where Logan, Chloe, Warren, and Jubilee were waiting patiently.

"What did you find out, kitten?" the wind rider asked curiously.

Kitty could barely contain her excitement as she faced the group prepared to reveal the new piece of information she had just discovered.

"There is a charity event taking place at Belle Reeve tonight raising money to fund a new wing for the hospital that will specialize in curing the meteor infected," the brunette informed excited, "If I was a gambling woman, I would bet that Lex and Sinister will both be there."

Ororo felt a smile of relief and hope spread across her lips. This was the first piece of good news that she had heard in a long time. Kitty's hunch about Lex and Sinister being in attendance at the charity event was a pretty justifiable assumption. Ororo was the only one on the team who had experiences with Lex and Sinister, and she knew that the one thing both men had in common was their needs to find people with special abilities and use them as pawns to do their evil bidding.

"Great work, Kitty," Ororo complimented sincerely causing the brunette to blush deeply.

Logan slowly rose from the couch with an serious expression on his face.

"This event will be the perfect opportunity them to go window shopping for mutants and people who are meteor infected to use as science projects. No matter the circumstances, we cannot let that happen," the feral man warned gruffly.

Everyone nodded and murmured in agreement.

"So what's the plan?" Clark asked curiously as he stood in the threshold of the living room entrance.

Ororo stared down her team with a new found glimmer of hope and determination shining deep in her aquatic blue eyes. She could tell by the eager expressions on everyone's face that they were more then ready to take down the evil duo and she was prepared to devise a plan that would assure that the mission would finally be a success.

"I will take a six man team into the event covertly. There will be four people inside of the ball itself, two people on the outside handling communications and a two man team that will lock down the wing of Bell Reeves where the meteor infected are being kept," Ororo advised.

Moments later, the meeting broke and people began to scatter in different directions. Logan, Ororo and Scott went off to form a concrete plan, while the others went to prepare for that nights mission.

Unbeknownst to any of them, Anna was standing outside the hall listening to every word that had been said. Earlier she had witnessed the emotional exchange between Clark, Remy and Ororo and she had come to an painful realization. Biting her bottom lip softly, Anna forced back her tears of sorrow as she forced herself to come to the terms with the fact that Remy was hopelessly and desperately in love with Ororo and that was never going to change. Now that she knew where Remy stood once and for all, she realized that her earlier ultamatium that she had given to Remy may have costed her the only ally that she had.

While Anna was devastated over the fact that she would never be the the woman that Remy chose to be with, she was well aware that she had bigger issues to deal with. Ever since the fact that she had intentionally hindered the mission, she had been getting the cold shoulder from members of the team. To make matters worse, Scott had showed up unannounced and she knew once he had learned what she had done, he would instantly want to get her off the mission and send her back to Wenchester. The southern belle knew she couldn't let that happen until she had the chance to make things right. Peering around the corner, she watched quietly as Chloe poured over data while Kitty updated Warren and Jubilee on everything that had been happening. Inhaling deeply, Anna knew that she only had a small window of opportunity to make things right. Slipping her hood over head, she quietly crept out of the quaint farmhouse and disappeared quietly into the night.


End file.
